Home wellness and safety sensor utilizing new material technology for condensed MIMO antenna implementation (WellSafe)

The number of people with life-style related health issues and diseases has been growing significantly the last few years. At the same time the relative share of elderly people in the population is increasing creating a demand for new solutions and technology to maximize quality-of-life and at the same time minimizing costs for the global society. This project proposes a new sensor that will both simplify the everyday life and reduce the cost related to continuous monitoring of elderly or people at risk in their own homes. The idea is to introduce a new device based on advanced microwave sensing that may be easily integrated in private homes or care units. This device will be mounted in the ceiling placed on a table or nightstand and has the ability to not only perform localization of people and their movement patterns, but also measure respiration and heart-rate in real-time. By combining signals from sensors in several room, intelligent and self-learning systems with the ability to report events deviating from the normal expected behavior are possible to realize. This functionality will be enabled by advanced 3D scanning of individual rooms utilizing state-of-the-art RF MIMO beamforming techniques. The ability to render 3D images relies on implementing a MxN matrix of single-channel radar sensors each including a pair of transmit (TX) and receive (RX) antennas, and a Novelda Xethru radar SoC. By synchronizing the individual channels and ensuring a maximum pitch of 1/2 the radar signal wavelength, digital receive beamforming is possible. If the pitch is larger than 1/2 the wavelength aliasing will occur, resulting in ambiguities and false detection. By creation of artificial structures known as metamaterials the electromagnetic properties can be manipulated beyond the choice of base material. The idea is to exploit the material properties to achieve sufficiently small antennas below 1/4 of the signal wavelength in order to meet product requirements. In the first project phase the architecture and target specifications have been defined both at system level and for the antenna elements. A number of antenna prototypes have been developed along with the first MIMO system prototypes including SW platform. A very small single-channel module for consumer markets have also been prototyped. The prototype antenna element has a size of 2.8mm x 7mm while the detection range is 7 meters. The project results are now transferred to product development for market launch Q4 2020.

Virkningen av prosjektet for selskapet har vært betydelig i form av kompetanseoppbygging på miniatyriserte antennedesign og multikanal (MIMO) sensorløsninger. Antenneminiatyriseringen som har vært mulig som følge av prosjektet har også åpnet for helt nye markeder for bedriftens produkter med betydelig potensiale. Prosjektet har også validert konseptløsninger for MIMO radar sensorer som grunnlag for produktutvikling. Prosjektet har også bidratt til kompetansebygging i universitetsmiljø i form ny kunnskap om alternative materialer og metoder knyttet til antenneminiatyrisering og karakteriseringsmetoder. I et større perspektiv har prosjektet hatt betydelig internasjonalt samarbeid og resultatspredning gjennom konferanser / workshops og publikasjoner.

The number of people with life-style related health issues and diseases has been growing significantly the last few years. At the same time the relative share of elderly people in the population is increasing creating a demand for new solutions and technology to maximize quality-of-life and at the same time minimizing costs for the global society. This project proposes a new sensor that will both simplify the everyday life and reduce the cost related to continuous monitoring of elderly or people at risk in their own homes. The idea is to introduce a new device based on advanced microwave sensing that may be easily integrated in private homes or care units. This device will be mounted in the ceiling similar to movement sensors or fire alarms and has the ability to not only perform localization of people and their movement patterns, but also measure respiration and heartrate in real-time. By combining signals from sensors in several room, intelligent and self-learning systems with the ability to report events deviating from the normal expected behavior are possible to realize. This functionality will be enabled by advanced 3D scanning of individual rooms utilizing state-of-the-art RF MIMO beamforming techniques. The ability to render 3D images relies on implementing a MxN matrix of single-channel radar sensors each including a pair of transmit (TX) and receive (RX) antennas, and a Novelda Xethru radar SoC. By synchronizing the individual channels and ensuring a maximum pitch of 1/2 the radar signal wavelength, digital receive beamforming is possible. If the pitch is larger than 1/2 the wavelength aliasing will occur, resulting in ambiguities and false detection. By creation of artificial structures known as metamaterials the electromagnetic properties can be manipulated beyond the choice of base material. The idea is to exploit the metamaterial properties to achieve sufficiently small antennas below 1/4 of the signal wavelength in order to meet product requirements.