A Simple Preprocessing Technique for ESPRIT Suitable for Non-Contact Vital Sensing Using a Doppler Sensor.

Abstract

Non-contact vital sensing using a Doppler sensor enables us to remotely measure vital signs such as respirations and heartbeats. In addition to such vital signs, the direction of arrival (DOA) of the multiple persons or animals is of our interest. For example, if a robot can detect DOAs of multiple living bodies, the robot is capable of tracing the living bodies, or discover them under disaster fields. ESPRIT is a well-known super-resolution DOA estimation method. However, it is also well-known that its performance is limited by the number of antennas and the coherence of the multiple incoming signals. This paper proposes to use a parameter estimation method so-called ARS, as a preprocessing of ESPRIT to overcome the above-mentioned impairments. The performance of the proposed method is verified through computer simulations.