Proposal of Multiple Detection Method in Human Detection System using Terrestrial Digital TV Waves

Abstract

This paper newly proposes Multiple Detection (MD) method in the human detection system using terrestrial digital TV broadcasting waves. In the conventional human detection system using analog TV waves, human motion in a room can be detected by monitoring Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of the TV waves. The human detection system using TV waves works in the environments where there are no disturbances such as moving car and passing human outside the room. However, the digitalization of the terrestrial TV system deteriorates the detection performance of this system even in such environments. The radio propagation properties of the digital TV system are different from those of the analog one since the digital system is operated in the Single Frequency Network (SFN). In the SFN environment, there are some rooms under the condition that the received TV waves come from several broadcasting stations with same frequency. In such case, our measurement results indicate that the RSSI hardly fluctuates even under condition of human presence and the detection method only using RSSI has a possibility of overlooking the human motion. In the proposed MD method, not only RSSI but also Carrier to Noise Ratio (CNR) and Bit Error Rate (BER) are utilized for human detection. Today most digital TV tuners are capable of monitoring the quality of received signal, such as CNR and BER in addition to RSSI. In this paper, based on the practical measurements by using the digital TV tuners, we evaluate the fluctuation performances of RSSI, CNR and BER affected by human motion in a wooden detached house, and clarify that the MD method can effectively detect human motion even in the SFN environment.