This non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) to Patent Application No. 111104101 filed in Taiwan, R.O.C. on Jan. 28, 2022 and Patent Application No. 111104102 filed in Taiwan, R.O.C. on Jan. 28, 2022, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to radar signal processing technologies, and in particular, to a radio frequency radar device and a method for detecting vital information and humidity.
At present, although there are physiological information detection radars for detecting breathing and heartbeat, in applications such as patient care, long-term care of the elderly, and infant care, the radars are still incapable of detecting the humidity of diapers for the patients, the elderly and infants who need to wear diapers.
According to some embodiments, a method for detecting vital information and humidity includes: transmitting an incident radar signal to a field, and receiving a reflected radar signal corresponding to the field; processing the reflected radar signal to obtain a body reflection signal of an object to be measured and a tag reflection signal of a humidity sensing tag; obtaining vital information according to phase information of the body reflection signal; and obtaining humidity information according to an energy intensity of the tag reflection signal.
According to some embodiments, a radio frequency radar device includes: a transmission unit, a receiving unit, a demodulation unit, and a processing unit. The transmission unit is configured to transmit an incident radar signal to a field. The receiving unit is configured to receive a reflected radar signal corresponding to the field. The demodulation unit is coupled to the transmission unit and the receiving unit, and is configured to process the reflected radar signal to obtain a body reflection signal of an object to be measured and a tag reflection signal of a humidity sensing tag. The processing unit is coupled to the transmission unit, the receiving unit, and the demodulation unit, and is configured to obtain vital information according to phase information of the body reflection signal, and obtain humidity information according to an energy intensity of the tag reflection signal.
According to some embodiments, a radio frequency radar device includes a transmission unit, a receiving unit, a first demodulation circuit, a second demodulation circuit, and a processing unit. The transmission unit is configured to transmit two incident radar signals with different frequencies to a field. The receiving unit is configured to receive a reflected radar signal corresponding to the field. The first demodulation circuit is coupled to the transmission unit and the receiving unit, receives the incident radar signal with a first frequency, and is configured to demodulate the reflected radar signal according to the first frequency, to obtain a body reflection signal. The second demodulation circuit is coupled to the transmission unit and the receiving unit, receives the incident radar signal with a second frequency, and is configured to demodulate the reflected radar signal according to the second frequency, to obtain a tag reflection signal. The processing unit is coupled to the transmission unit, the receiving unit, the first demodulation circuit, and the second demodulation circuit, and is configured to obtain vital information according to phase information of the body reflection signal, and obtain humidity information according to an energy intensity of the tag reflection signal.
To sum up, the radio frequency radar device and the method for detecting vital information and humidity according to some embodiments can measure vital information and humidity at the same time, thereby saving device space and hardware cost.
The term “couple” used in this specification means that two or more components are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, or are in indirect physical or electrical contact with each other.
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In some embodiments, the radio frequency radar device 100 is a continuous wave (CW) radar.
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The receiving unit 112 is configured to receive the reflected radar signals FN and FN′ (step S32). The receiving unit 112 includes a receiving antenna, and a working frequency range of the receiving antenna needs to cover the frequencies of the reflected radar signals FN and FN′. Optionally, when the working frequency range of a receiving antenna can cover the frequencies of the reflected radar signals FN and FN′, one receiving antenna is available. Conversely, two receiving antennas may be used, and the two receiving antennas separately work in different frequency ranges, so as to cover the frequencies of the reflected radar signals FN and FN′ respectively. It can be understood that if only the reflected radar signals FN and FN′ with the same frequency are received, there may alternatively be only one receiving antenna.
The demodulation unit 120 is coupled to the transmission unit 111 and the receiving unit 112, and is configured to process the reflected radar signals FN and FN′ to obtain a body reflection signal Sb of the object 900 to be measured (step S33) and obtain a tag reflection signal St of the humidity sensing tag 200 (step S35). The processing unit 130 is coupled to the transmission unit 111, the receiving unit 112, and the demodulation unit 120 to control these units, and is configured to obtain vital information according to phase information of the body reflection signal Sb (step S34), and obtain humidity information according to an energy intensity of the tag reflection signal St (step S36). In this way, the vital information and humidity information may be acquired at the same time by the radio frequency radar device 100. For example, if the disclosure is applied to baby care, a vital response and a diaper condition of a baby may be obtained at the same time. However, the invention is not limited to this application.
Before an operation principle of the demodulation unit 120 and the processing unit 130 is described in detail, an architecture of the humidity sensing tag 200 is described first. Referring to
The input antenna 210 is used for receiving the incident radar signal FH delivered from the radio frequency radar device 100. Here, the input antenna 210 may be a dual-dipole patch antenna, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. The input antenna 210 is coupled to the frequency multiplication circuit 220 and the RF-DC converter 230. The frequency multiplication circuit 220 receives the incident radar signal FH received by the input antenna 210, and multiplies the frequency of the incident radar signal FH, that is, generates a signal with a frequency of 2f0 (alternatively, referred to as frequency-multiplied signal) according to the incident radar signal FH with a frequency of f0 (alternatively, referred to as fundamental frequency signal). The RF-DC converter 230 is an energy collector, and collects the energy of the incident radar signal FH received by the input antenna 210. A part of the radio frequency signal energy is collected by the RF-DC converter 230 and boosted to a working voltage of other circuits, to provide a working voltage of the humidity sensing tag 200. Therefore, the humidity sensing tag 200 does not need to be additionally equipped with a battery. However, in some embodiments, the RF-DC converter 230 may be replaced by a battery to provide a working voltage of a circuit. The RF-DC converter 230 may be mainly implemented by a voltage multiplier composed of a plurality of diodes and a plurality of capacitors. The RF-DC converter 230 is also coupled to the oscillator 240 to supply a working voltage to the oscillator 240. The oscillator 240 is coupled to a bias end of the frequency multiplication circuit 220 to generate a specific frequency signal, so as to modulate a signal of the frequency multiplication circuit 220. The specific frequency signal may be identified as a tag.
The output antenna 250 is coupled to the frequency multiplication circuit 220 to transmit the radio frequency signal that has been modulated and frequency-multiplied, that is, the frequency-multiplied signal (2f0) coupled with the specific frequency signal identified as the tag is output. The output antenna 250 is coupled to the humidity sensor 260 to form a humidity detection antenna. The humidity sensor 260 is a variable capacitor. The change of the medium caused by humidity may affect the dielectric coefficient of the capacitor, which may further affect the resonance frequency of the output antenna 250, causing the energy intensity of the frequency-multiplied signal (2f0) to change. Therefore, the radio frequency radar device 100 may know the humidity change by detecting the change of the signal intensity of the frequency-multiplied signal (2f0). The humidity sensor 260 may be an interdigital capacitor or a parallel plate capacitor.
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The first demodulation circuit 123 is coupled to the transmission unit 111 and the receiving unit 112 to receive the incident radar signal FH from the transmission unit 111 and demodulate the reflected radar signal FN with the same frequency of f0 according to the frequency (f0) corresponding to the incident radar signal FH, to obtain the body reflection signal Sb. The body reflection signal Sb may reflect the phase information of the phase change caused by body movements of breathing and heartbeat.
The second demodulation circuit 124 is coupled to the transmission unit 111 and the receiving unit 112 to receive the frequency-multiplied incident radar signal FH (2f0) from the transmission unit 111, and is configured to demodulate the reflected radar signal FN′ according to twice the frequency (2f0) corresponding to the incident radar signal FH, to obtain the tag reflection signal St. Here, the transmission unit 111 includes a frequency multiplier to generate the frequency-multiplied signal 2f0.
The processing unit 130 includes a control circuit 135, two analog-to-digital converters 136, and an arithmetic circuit 137. The control circuit 135 is coupled to the transmission unit 111, the receiving unit 112, the first demodulation circuit 123, the second demodulation circuit 124, and the arithmetic circuit 137, and is configured to control operation of these components. The two analog-to-digital converters 136 are respectively coupled to the first demodulation circuit 123 and the second demodulation circuit 124 to convert the body reflection signal Sb and the tag reflection signal St into digital signals. The arithmetic circuit 137 is coupled to the two analog-to-digital converters 136 to perform digital signal processing on the digital signals, such as removing noise, removing high-frequency signals, and removing inappropriate breathing harmonics, so as to calculate breathing and heartbeat information from the body reflection signal Sb. Specifically, vital information such as breathing and heartbeat may be obtained according to the oscillation frequency of the phase information of the body reflection signal Sb, and the respective information types may be distinguished according to their common frequency ranges. On the other hand, the arithmetic circuit 137 may determine the energy intensity of the tag reflection signal St, to identify the humidity information of the humidity sensor 260.
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In some embodiments, because the radio frequency radar device 100 and the humidity sensing tag 200 also change the energy intensity, the humidity determination may be affected. Therefore, the energy intensity in the dry environment may be recorded first when the diaper is still dry at the beginning, and then the humidity information may be determined according to the result of comparing a variation amount of the energy intensity with a threshold. Alternatively, when the radio frequency radar device 100 initially works, the current energy intensity of the reflected radar signal FN′ may be recorded first, and when the variation amount of the energy intensity exceeds the threshold, it can be determined that the diaper is wet.
In some embodiments, the frequency f0 in the aforementioned first embodiment is 865 to 868 MHz, but the disclosure is not limited thereto.
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In some embodiments, the control circuit 135, the two analog-to-digital converters 136, and the arithmetic circuit 137 may be independent or be integrated together, and may be components such as a processor, a microprocessor, and a system-on-chip.
To sum up, the radio frequency radar device and the method for detecting vital information and humidity according to some embodiments can measure vital information and humidity at the same time, thereby saving device space and hardware cost.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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111104101 | Jan 2022 | TW | national |
111104102 | Jan 2022 | TW | national |