L2M NSERC - UWB Radar-Based Indoor Human Event Monitoring System

由于高传染性的冠状病毒（COVID-19）的广泛传播，在过去三年中，全世界都面临着医疗资源短缺的问题。但是，大多数感染患者症状轻微或中度，因此建议在家休息和康复。据加拿大公共卫生署报告，魁北克省97.6%的COVID-19死亡病例发生在60岁及以上年龄组。此外，据报告，大量COVID-19死亡病例发生在静息状态（睡眠）或摔倒的情况下，主要是由于呼吸突然恶化以及其他相关症状造成的。另一方面，对人类活动的监测涉及几个问题，包括所使用技术的可行性和可靠性、传感装置的成本和主体的隐私。目前，针对智能传感的视频监控和可穿戴传感器已经发展起来。虽然很简单，但它们有两个限制：隐私问题和相机盲点的存在。同时，可穿戴传感器通常不方便用户使用，容易被老年人遗忘。开发一种能够准确检测跌倒等异常事件和重要状态的智能室内监控系统，以保护人们的隐私并使数据易于访问是一个潜在的挑战。基于上述观察，在本项目中，我们将开发一种非接触式室内传感系统，利用脉冲无线电超宽带（IR-UWB）雷达和麦克风阵列技术来检测人体位置、行为（特别是摔倒和咳嗽）和生命体征。该项目的技术目标是：(1)通过开发和优化生命体征（呼吸、心率和心音）检测算法来增强现有的传感系统；(2)创新基于超宽带雷达和麦克风阵列的识别算法，能够实时识别事件和活动（如行走、跌倒、进食、饮水、睡眠、咳嗽），以及对疾病（如阿尔茨海默病、帕金森病或COVID）的早期预测；(3)研制出一种紧凑型环境传感器，能够在云中检测移动物体，无需校准，不存在安全风险。

Owing to the wide spreading of the highly contagious coronavirus (COVID-19), the whole world has suffered a shortage of healthcare resources in the last three years. However, the majority of infected patients are found to have light or moderate symptoms and thus are suggested to rest and recover at home. As reported by the Public Health Agency of Canada, 97.6% of COVID-19 deaths in Quebec occurred in the age group of 60 years and older. Moreover, a significant number of COVID-19 deaths at home have been reported in resting state (sleep) or fall down situations, caused mainly by a sudden deterioration of breathing along with other related symptoms. On the other hand, monitoring of human activities concerns several issues, including the feasibility and reliability of the technology used, the cost of sensing devices and the privacy of the subject. Currently, video monitoring and wearable sensor have been developed for smart sensing. Although straightforward, they have two limitations: privacy issues and the presence of blind spots to the camera. Meanwhile, wearable sensors are usually not user-friendly and are easily forgotten by elders. Developing an intelligent indoor surveillance system that can accurately detect abnormal events like falls as well as vital status in a way that protects people's privacy and allows easy access to data is a potential challenge. Motivated by the above observation, in this project, we will develop a non-contact indoor sensing system, exploiting the impulse radio ultra-wide-band (IR-UWB) radar and microphone array technology for human locations, behaviors (especially fall down and cough) and vital signs. The technical objectives of this project are to (1) augment existing sensing systems by developing and optimizing vital sign (breathing, heart rate, and heart sound) detection algorithms; (2) innovate recognition algorithms based on UWB radar and microphone array, which are capable of real-time identification of events and activities (e.g. walking, falling, eating, drinking, sleeping, coughing) as well as early prediction of disorders (such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or COVID); and (3) develop a compact ambient sensor capable of detecting moving object through the cloud without calibration and risk of safety.