Low Complexity Radar Gesture Recognition Using Synthetic Training Data

Developments in radio detection and ranging (radar) technology have made hand gesture recognition feasible. In heat map-based gesture recognition, feature images have a large size and require complex neural networks to extract information. Machine learning methods typically require large amounts of data and collecting hand gestures with radar is time- and energy-consuming. Therefore, a low computational complexity algorithm for hand gesture recognition based on a frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar and a synthetic hand gesture feature generator are proposed. In the low computational complexity algorithm, two-dimensional Fast Fourier Transform is implemented on the radar raw data to generate a range-Doppler matrix. After that, background modelling is applied to separate the dynamic object and the static background. Then a bin with the highest magnitude in the range-Doppler matrix is selected to locate the target and obtain its range and velocity. The bins at this location along the dimension of the antenna can be utilised to calculate the angle of the target using Fourier beam steering. In the synthetic generator, the Blender software is used to generate different hand gestures and trajectories and then the range, velocity and angle of targets are extracted directly from the trajectory. The experimental results demonstrate that the average recognition accuracy of the model on the test set can reach 89.13% when the synthetic data are used as the training set and the real data are used as the test set. This indicates that the generation of synthetic data can make a meaningful contribution in the pre-training phase

The Magnetic Topology of the Weak-Lined T Tauri Star V410 - A Simultaneous Temperature and Magnetic Field Inversion

We present a detailed temperature and magnetic investigation of the T Tauri star V410 Tau by means of a simultaneous Doppler- and Zeeman-Doppler Imaging. Moreover we introduce a new line profile reconstruction method based on a singular value decomposition (SVD) to extract the weak polarized line profiles. One of the key features of the line profile reconstruction is that the SVD line profiles are amenable to radiative transfer modeling within our Zeeman-Doppler Imaging code iMap. The code also utilizes a new iterative regularization scheme which is independent of any additional surface constraints. To provide more stability a vital part of our inversion strategy is the inversion of both Stokes I and Stokes V profiles to simultaneously reconstruct the temperature and magnetic field surface distribution of V410 Tau. A new image-shear analysis is also implemented to allow the search for image and line profile distortions induced by a differential rotation of the star. The magnetic field structure we obtain for V410 Tau shows a good spatial correlation with the surface temperature and is dominated by a strong field within the cool polar spot. The Zeeman-Doppler maps exhibit a large-scale organization of both polarities around the polar cap in the form of a twisted bipolar structure. The magnetic field reaches a value of almost 2 kG within the polar region but smaller fields are also present down to lower latitudes. The pronounced non-axisymmetric field structure and the non-detection of a differential rotation for V410 Tau supports the idea of an underlying $\alpha^2$-type dynamo, which is predicted for weak-lined T Tauri stars.Comment: Accepted for A&A, 18 pages, 10 figure

Radar-based Application of Pedestrian and Cyclist Micro-Doppler Signatures for Automotive Safety Systems

Die sensorbasierte Erfassung des Nahfeldes im Kontext des hochautomatisierten Fahrens erfährt einen spürbaren Trend bei der Integration von Radarsensorik. Fortschritte in der Mikroelektronik erlauben den Einsatz von hochauflösenden Radarsensoren, die durch effiziente Verfahren sowohl im Winkel als auch in der Entfernung und im Doppler die Messgenauigkeit kontinuierlich ansteigen lassen. Dadurch ergeben sich neuartige Möglichkeiten bei der Bestimmung der geometrischen und kinematischen Beschaffenheit ausgedehnter Ziele im Fahrzeugumfeld, die zur gezielten Entwicklung von automotiven Sicherheitssystemen herangezogen werden können. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit werden ungeschützte Verkehrsteilnehmer wie Fußgänger und Radfahrer mittels eines hochauflösenden Automotive-Radars analysiert. Dabei steht die Erscheinung des Mikro-Doppler-Effekts, hervorgerufen durch das hohe Maß an kinematischen Freiheitsgraden der Objekte, im Vordergrund der Betrachtung. Die durch den Mikro-Doppler-Effekt entstehenden charakteristischen Radar-Signaturen erlauben eine detailliertere Perzeption der Objekte und können in direkten Zusammenhang zu ihren aktuellen Bewegungszuständen gesetzt werden. Es werden neuartige Methoden vorgestellt, die die geometrischen und kinematischen Ausdehnungen der Objekte berücksichtigen und echtzeitfähige Ansätze zur Klassifikation und Verhaltensindikation realisieren. Wird ein ausgedehntes Ziel (z.B. Radfahrer) von einem Radarsensor detektiert, können aus dessen Mikro-Doppler-Signatur wesentliche Eigenschaften bezüglich seines Bewegungszustandes innerhalb eines Messzyklus erfasst werden. Die Geschwindigkeitsverteilungen der sich drehenden Räder erlauben eine adaptive Eingrenzung der Tretbewegung, deren Verhalten essentielle Merkmale im Hinblick auf eine vorausschauende Unfallprädiktion aufweist. Ferner unterliegen ausgedehnte Radarziele einer Orientierungsabhängigkeit, die deren geometrischen und kinematischen Profile direkt beeinflusst. Dies kann sich sowohl negativ auf die Klassifikations-Performance als auch auf die Verwertbarkeit von Parametern auswirken, die eine Absichtsbekundung des Radarziels konstituieren. Am Beispiel des Radfahrers wird hierzu ein Verfahren vorgestellt, das die orientierungsabhängigen Parameter in Entfernung und Doppler normalisiert und die gemessenen Mehrdeutigkeiten kompensiert. Ferner wird in dieser Arbeit eine Methodik vorgestellt, die auf Grundlage des Mikro- Doppler-Profils eines Fußgängers dessen Beinbewegungen über die Zeit schätzt (Tracking) und wertvolle Objektinformationen hinsichtlich seines Bewegungsverhaltens offenbart. Dazu wird ein Bewegungsmodell entwickelt, das die nichtlineare Fortbewegung des Beins approximiert und dessen hohes Maß an biomechanischer Variabilität abbildet. Durch die Einbeziehung einer wahrscheinlichkeitsbasierten Datenassoziation werden die Radar-Detektionen ihren jeweils hervorrufenden Quellen (linkes und rechtes Bein) zugeordnet und eine Trennung der Gliedmaßen realisiert. Im Gegensatz zu bisherigen Tracking-Verfahren weist die vorgestellte Methodik eine Steigerung in der Genauigkeit der Objektinformationen auf und stellt damit einen entscheidenden Vorteil für zukünftige Fahrerassistenzsysteme dar, um deutlich schneller auf kritische Verkehrssituationen reagieren zu können.:1 Introduction 1 1.1 Automotive environmental perception 2 1.2 Contributions of this work 4 1.3 Thesis overview 6 2 Automotive radar 9 2.1 Physical fundamentals 9 2.1.1 Radar cross section 9 2.1.2 Radar equation 10 2.1.3 Micro-Doppler effect 11 2.2 Radar measurement model 15 2.2.1 FMCW radar 15 2.2.2 Chirp sequence modulation 17 2.2.3 Direction-of-arrival estimation 22 2.3 Signal processing 25 2.3.1 Target properties 26 2.3.2 Target extraction 28 Power detection 28 Clustering 30 2.3.3 Real radar data example 31 2.4 Conclusion 33 3 Micro-Doppler applications of a cyclist 35 3.1 Physical fundamentals 35 3.1.1 Micro-Doppler signatures of a cyclist 35 3.1.2 Orientation dependence 36 3.2 Cyclist feature extraction 38 3.2.1 Adaptive pedaling extraction 38 Ellipticity constraints 38 Ellipse fitting algorithm 39 3.2.2 Experimental results 42 3.3 Normalization of the orientation dependence 44 3.3.1 Geometric correction 44 3.3.2 Kinematic correction 45 3.3.3 Experimental results 45 3.4 Conclusion 47 3.5 Discussion and outlook 47 4 Micro-Doppler applications of a pedestrian 49 4.1 Pedestrian detection 49 4.1.1 Human kinematics 49 4.1.2 Micro-Doppler signatures of a pedestrian 51 4.1.3 Experimental results 52 Radially moving pedestrian 52 Crossing pedestrian 54 4.2 Pedestrian feature extraction 57 4.2.1 Frequency-based limb separation 58 4.2.2 Extraction of body parts 60 4.2.3 Experimental results 62 4.3 Pedestrian tracking 64 4.3.1 Probabilistic state estimation 65 4.3.2 Gaussian filters 67 4.3.3 The Kalman filter 67 4.3.4 The extended Kalman filter 69 4.3.5 Multiple-object tracking 71 4.3.6 Data association 74 4.3.7 Joint probabilistic data association 80 4.4 Kinematic-based pedestrian tracking 84 4.4.1 Kinematic modeling 84 4.4.2 Tracking motion model 87 4.4.3 4-D radar point cloud 91 4.4.4 Tracking implementation 92 4.4.5 Experimental results 96 Longitudinal trajectory 96 Crossing trajectory with sudden turn 98 4.5 Conclusion 102 4.6 Discussion and outlook 103 5 Summary and outlook 105 5.1 Developed algorithms 105 5.1.1 Adaptive pedaling extraction 105 5.1.2 Normalization of the orientation dependence 105 5.1.3 Model-based pedestrian tracking 106 5.2 Outlook 106 Bibliography 109 List of Acronyms 119 List of Figures 124 List of Tables 125 Appendix 127 A Derivation of the rotation matrix 2.26 127 B Derivation of the mixed radar signal 2.52 129 C Calculation of the marginal association probabilities 4.51 131 Curriculum Vitae 135Sensor-based detection of the near field in the context of highly automated driving is experiencing a noticeable trend in the integration of radar sensor technology. Advances in microelectronics allow the use of high-resolution radar sensors that continuously increase measurement accuracy through efficient processes in angle as well as distance and Doppler. This opens up novel possibilities in determining the geometric and kinematic nature of extended targets in the vehicle environment, which can be used for the specific development of automotive safety systems. In this work, vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists are analyzed using a high-resolution automotive radar. The focus is on the appearance of the micro-Doppler effect, caused by the objects’ high kinematic degree of freedom. The characteristic radar signatures produced by the micro-Doppler effect allow a clearer perception of the objects and can be directly related to their current state of motion. Novel methods are presented that consider the geometric and kinematic extents of the objects and realize real-time approaches to classification and behavioral indication. When a radar sensor detects an extended target (e.g., bicyclist), its motion state’s fundamental properties can be captured from its micro-Doppler signature within a measurement cycle. The spinning wheels’ velocity distributions allow an adaptive containment of the pedaling motion, whose behavior exhibits essential characteristics concerning predictive accident prediction. Furthermore, extended radar targets are subject to orientation dependence, directly affecting their geometric and kinematic profiles. This can negatively affect both the classification performance and the usability of parameters constituting the radar target’s intention statement. For this purpose, using the cyclist as an example, a method is presented that normalizes the orientation-dependent parameters in range and Doppler and compensates for the measured ambiguities. Furthermore, this paper presents a methodology that estimates a pedestrian’s leg motion over time (tracking) based on the pedestrian’s micro-Doppler profile and reveals valuable object information regarding his motion behavior. To this end, a motion model is developed that approximates the leg’s nonlinear locomotion and represents its high degree of biomechanical variability. By incorporating likelihood-based data association, radar detections are assigned to their respective evoking sources (left and right leg), and limb separation is realized. In contrast to previous tracking methods, the presented methodology shows an increase in the object information’s accuracy. It thus represents a decisive advantage for future driver assistance systems in order to be able to react significantly faster to critical traffic situations.:1 Introduction 1 1.1 Automotive environmental perception 2 1.2 Contributions of this work 4 1.3 Thesis overview 6 2 Automotive radar 9 2.1 Physical fundamentals 9 2.1.1 Radar cross section 9 2.1.2 Radar equation 10 2.1.3 Micro-Doppler effect 11 2.2 Radar measurement model 15 2.2.1 FMCW radar 15 2.2.2 Chirp sequence modulation 17 2.2.3 Direction-of-arrival estimation 22 2.3 Signal processing 25 2.3.1 Target properties 26 2.3.2 Target extraction 28 Power detection 28 Clustering 30 2.3.3 Real radar data example 31 2.4 Conclusion 33 3 Micro-Doppler applications of a cyclist 35 3.1 Physical fundamentals 35 3.1.1 Micro-Doppler signatures of a cyclist 35 3.1.2 Orientation dependence 36 3.2 Cyclist feature extraction 38 3.2.1 Adaptive pedaling extraction 38 Ellipticity constraints 38 Ellipse fitting algorithm 39 3.2.2 Experimental results 42 3.3 Normalization of the orientation dependence 44 3.3.1 Geometric correction 44 3.3.2 Kinematic correction 45 3.3.3 Experimental results 45 3.4 Conclusion 47 3.5 Discussion and outlook 47 4 Micro-Doppler applications of a pedestrian 49 4.1 Pedestrian detection 49 4.1.1 Human kinematics 49 4.1.2 Micro-Doppler signatures of a pedestrian 51 4.1.3 Experimental results 52 Radially moving pedestrian 52 Crossing pedestrian 54 4.2 Pedestrian feature extraction 57 4.2.1 Frequency-based limb separation 58 4.2.2 Extraction of body parts 60 4.2.3 Experimental results 62 4.3 Pedestrian tracking 64 4.3.1 Probabilistic state estimation 65 4.3.2 Gaussian filters 67 4.3.3 The Kalman filter 67 4.3.4 The extended Kalman filter 69 4.3.5 Multiple-object tracking 71 4.3.6 Data association 74 4.3.7 Joint probabilistic data association 80 4.4 Kinematic-based pedestrian tracking 84 4.4.1 Kinematic modeling 84 4.4.2 Tracking motion model 87 4.4.3 4-D radar point cloud 91 4.4.4 Tracking implementation 92 4.4.5 Experimental results 96 Longitudinal trajectory 96 Crossing trajectory with sudden turn 98 4.5 Conclusion 102 4.6 Discussion and outlook 103 5 Summary and outlook 105 5.1 Developed algorithms 105 5.1.1 Adaptive pedaling extraction 105 5.1.2 Normalization of the orientation dependence 105 5.1.3 Model-based pedestrian tracking 106 5.2 Outlook 106 Bibliography 109 List of Acronyms 119 List of Figures 124 List of Tables 125 Appendix 127 A Derivation of the rotation matrix 2.26 127 B Derivation of the mixed radar signal 2.52 129 C Calculation of the marginal association probabilities 4.51 131 Curriculum Vitae 13

Ensemble-Empirical-Mode-Decomposition based micro-Doppler signal separation and classification

The target echo signals obtained by Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI platforms are mainly composed of two parts, the micro-Doppler signal and the target body part signal. The wheeled vehicle and the track vehicle are classified according to the different character of their micro-Doppler signal. In order to overcome the mode mixing problem in Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) is employed to decompose the original signal into a number of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF). The correlation analysis is then carried out to select IMFs which have a relatively high correlation with the micro-Doppler signal. Thereafter, four discriminative features are extracted and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier is applied for classification. The experimental results show that the features extracted after EEMD decomposition are effective, with up 90% success rate for classification using one feature. In addition, these four features are complementary in different target velocity and azimuth angles

Gravitational wave astronomy - astronomy of the 21st century

An enigmatic prediction of Einstein's general theory of relativity is gravitational waves. With the observed decay in the orbit of the Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar agreeing within a fraction of a percent with the theoretically computed decay from Einstein's theory, the existence of gravitational waves was firmly established. Currently there is a worldwide effort to detect gravitational waves with interferometric gravitational wave observatories or detectors and several such detectors have been built or being built. The initial detectors have reached their design sensitivities and now the effort is on to construct advanced detectors which are expected to detect gravitational waves from astrophysical sources. The era of gravitational wave astronomy has arrived. This article describes the worldwide effort which includes the effort on the Indian front - the IndIGO project -, the principle underlying interferometric detectors both on ground and in space, the principal noise sources that plague such detectors, the astrophysical sources of gravitational waves that one expects to detect by these detectors and some glimpse of the data analysis methods involved in extracting the very weak gravitational wave signals from detector noise.Comment: The contents of this article were finalised few months ago. The discussion in the article pertains to the situation prevailing at that tim

Ensemble-Empirical-Mode-Decomposition based micro-Doppler signal separation and classification

The target echo signals obtained by Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI platforms are mainly composed of two parts, the micro-Doppler signal and the target body part signal. The wheeled vehicle and the track vehicle are classified according to the different character of their micro-Doppler signal. In order to overcome the mode mixing problem in Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) is employed to decompose the original signal into a number of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF). The correlation analysis is then carried out to select IMFs which have a relatively high correlation with the micro-Doppler signal. Thereafter, four discriminative features are extracted and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier is applied for classification. The experimental results show that the features extracted after EEMD decomposition are effective, with up 90% success rate for classification using one feature. In addition, these four features are complementary in different target velocity and azimuth angles

Two-dimensional Length Extraction of Ballistic Target from ISAR Images Using a New Scaling Method by Affine Registration

The length of ballistic target is one of the most important features for target recognition. It can be extracted from ISAR Images. Unlike from the optical image, the length extraction from ISAR image has two difficulties. The first one is that it is hard to get the actual position of scattering centres by the traditional target extraction method. The second one is that the ISAR image’s cross scale is not known because of the target’s complex rotation. Here we propose two methods to solve these problems. Firstly, we use clustering method to get scattering centers. Secondly we propose to get cross scale of the ISAR images by affine registration. Experiments verified that our approach is realisable and has good performance.Defence Science Journal, Vol. 64, No. 5, September 2014, pp.458-463, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.64.500

NON-CONTACT TECHNIQUES FOR HUMAN VITAL SIGN DETECTION AND GAIT ANALYSIS

Human vital signs including respiratory rate, heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, and body temperature are important physiological parameters that are used to track and monitor human health condition. Another important biological parameter of human health is human gait. Human vital sign detection and gait investigations have been attracted many scientists and practitioners in various fields such as sport medicine, geriatric medicine, bio-mechanic and bio-medical engineering and has many biological and medical applications such as diagnosis of health issues and abnormalities, elderly care and health monitoring, athlete performance analysis, and treatment of joint problems. Thoroughly tracking and understanding the normal motion of human limb joints can help to accurately monitor human subjects or patients over time to provide early flags of possible complications in order to aid in a proper diagnosis and development of future comprehensive treatment plans. With the spread of COVID-19 around the world, it has been getting more important than ever to employ technology that enables us to detect human vital signs in a non-contact way and helps protect both patients and healthcare providers from potentially life-threatening viruses, and have the potential to also provide a convenient way to monitor people health condition, remotely. A popular technique to extract biological parameters from a distance is to use cameras. Radar systems are another attractive solution for non-contact human vital signs monitoring and gait investigation that track and monitor these biological parameters without invading people privacy. The goal of this research is to develop non-contact methods that is capable of extracting human vital sign parameters and gait features accurately. To do that, in this work, optical systems including cameras and proper filters have been developed to extract human respiratory rate, heart rate, and oxygen saturation. Feasibility of blood pressure extraction using the developed optical technique has been investigated, too. Moreover, a wideband and low-cost radar system has been implemented to detect single or multiple human subject’s respiration and heart rate in dark or from behind the wall. The performance of the implemented radar system has been enhanced and it has been utilized for non-contact human gait analysis. Along with the hardware, advanced signal processing schemes have been enhanced and applied to the data collected using the aforementioned radar system. The data processing algorithms have been extended for multi-subject scenarios with high accuracy for both human vital sign detection and gait analysis. In addition, different configurations of this and high-performance radar system including mono-static and MIMO have been designed and implemented with great success. Many sets of exhaustive experiments have been conducted using different human subjects and various situations and accurate reference sensors have been used to validate the performance of the developed systems and algorithms

One way Doppler extractor. Volume 1: Vernier technique

A feasibility analysis, trade-offs, and implementation for a One Way Doppler Extraction system are discussed. A Doppler error analysis shows that quantization error is a primary source of Doppler measurement error. Several competing extraction techniques are compared and a Vernier technique is developed which obtains high Doppler resolution with low speed logic. Parameter trade-offs and sensitivities for the Vernier technique are analyzed, leading to a hardware design configuration. A detailed design, operation, and performance evaluation of the resulting breadboard model is presented which verifies the theoretical performance predictions. Performance tests have verified that the breadboard is capable of extracting Doppler, on an S-band signal, to an accuracy of less than 0.02 Hertz for a one second averaging period. This corresponds to a range rate error of no more than 3 millimeters per second