Millimeter wave radar is quite useful in applications, such as healthcare, where privacy protection is heavily demanded. This article looks at Uniview’s millimeter wave radar for senior care applications, based on product testing by a&s China.
Millimeter wave radar is a non-visible light technology that has gained momentum in security. Since it leverages the non-visible part of the spectrum, it is quite useful in applications, such as healthcare, where privacy protection is heavily demanded. This article takes a look at Uniview’s millimeter wave radar for senior care applications, based on product testing by a&s China.
In recent years, with improvements in living standards and medical care, the number of elderly people across the globe has grown rapidly. That said, real-time health monitoring of seniors has become quite important.
Typically, real-time health monitoring of seniors is achieved by: 1) wearables such as smart bracelets and watches and 2) the use of video surveillance solutions. For the former, they bring discomfort to the elderly. For the latter, they invade the privacy of seniors, especially when cameras are placed in bedrooms and bathrooms.
Against this backdrop, Uniview launched their smart healthcare millimeter radar solutions, which can not only achieve uninterrupted monitoring 24-7, but also avoid infringing on the privacy of the elderly. There are four solutions: vital sign radar, fall detection radar, human presence radar and people counting radar, all of which can be directly connected to Uniview's dedicated cloud data platform. Below we take a close look at each.
Vital sign radar
The vital sign radar employs 60GHz millimeter waves and can cover a distance of 2.7 meters. The radar can effectively measure the user's breathing and heart rate during sleep; if the elderly person has a weaker-than-usual heartbeat, it can still be accurately sensed. The radar can issue alarms when a disabled elderly person sits up and gets out of bed alone, reducing potential accidents.
By detecting the user's sleep patterns, the vital sign radar can establish a personal profile, which can be shared with local medical data platforms to understand the user's physical conditions and provide early warnings in special circumstances.
Fall detection radar
Falls are dangerous and even deadly to the elderly. To that end, the fall detection radar using 60GHz millimeter waves can detect falls. Equipped with a 3-transmit 4-receive array antenna, the radar has an accuracy of rate of 95 percent. It’s worth noting the solution addresses perhaps the biggest challenge in fall detection radars – false alarms. The Uniview radar can effectively distinguish falls from common actions such as squatting, sitting down and lying on the bed. The radar has an integrated wireless communication module, supports 4G/5G and can adapt to different network conditions across the country.
Human presence detection radar
If an elderly person dwells at a particular place for a long time without moving, this can be alarming. This is where Uniview’s human presence detection radar comes in. Its 60GHz mmWave technology can effectively detect subtle movements; even if there’s a seemingly still human body, the radar can determine if that person is all right by sensing subtle movements such as breathing. As mentioned, based on Uniview's self-developed algorithm, the radar can eliminate false alarms caused by small pets or non-human objects.
People counting radar
Uniview is one of the first radar manufacturers to apply radar technology to people counting, which plays an important role in the elderly care industry. The radar is mainly used in senior homes and day care centers. It employs the 80GHz shortwave detection technology, has a position accuracy of ±0.2m and speed accuracy ±0.15m and can cover areas with maximum horizontal and vertical lengths of 6 meters and 8 meters, respectively, a detection range of 2-3 times that of top-mounted people counting cameras. It can replace multiple people counting cameras, thereby reducing the overall application cost of the system. In addition to the elderly care industry, commercial buildings, museums, fairgrounds and classrooms can also benefit.
Cloud-based healthcare platform
Uniview has a cloud-based healthcare platform that can process the radar-generated mmWave data, which can be transmitted to the platform via 4G and Wi-Fi. The user can connect all Uniview radar products to the platform, which helps reduce the time needed to set up a monitoring system at the end user organization. Of course, if the user has strong integration capabilities, they can also connect the radar to their own system or private cloud.
Solution advantages:
1. Privacy protection: Since the data is not recorded image, user privacy is strongly protected even if the data is stolen;
2. Ultra-high precision: High-resolution millimeter waves are leveraged and array antenna technology adopted to achieve high precision;
3. Strong anti-interference: The use of millimeter wave technology is not affected by physical conditions such as light and temperature, thus generating fewer false alarms;
4. Power supply: The radar can use common 220V household AC power supply and allow uninterrupted monitoring;
5. Intelligent front-end: The radar is equipped with Uniview's self-developed algorithm, which can effectively filter out object interference and reduce false alarms;
a&s Comments:
Based on the characteristics of millimeter waves, Uniview's mmWave radar will not collect video data of senior citizens in the monitoring area, effectively protecting their privacy. The 60GHz frequency can achieve precise positioning of people even if they have moved only slightly. The radar solutions are equipped with Uniview's self-developed algorithm, which effectively enhances the perception ability, avoids external interference, and comprehensively improves accuracy, providing safe and reliable data for monitoring the elderly.
At the same time, the radar solutions can be connected to Uniview’s dedicated cloud data center, which adopts a fully open architecture. Enterprises can build personalized service platforms based on their own needs, effectively meeting the specific requirements for the end user entity.
Product Adopted:Medical