TR-BREATH: Time-Reversal Breathing Rate Estimation and Detection

In this paper, we introduce TR-BREATH, a time-reversal (TR)-based contact-free breathing monitoring system. It is capable of breathing detection and multiperson breathing rate estimation within a short period of time using off-the-shelf WiFi devices. The proposed system exploits the channel state information (CSI) to capture the miniature variations in the environment caused by breathing. To magnify the CSI variations, TR-BREATH projects CSIs into the TR resonating strength (TRRS) feature space and analyzes the TRRS by the Root-MUSIC and affinity propagation algorithms. Extensive experiment results indoor demonstrate a perfect detection rate of breathing. With only 10 s of measurement, a mean accuracy of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$99\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> can be obtained for single-person breathing rate estimation under the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenario. Furthermore, it achieves a mean accuracy of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$98.65\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> in breathing rate estimation for a dozen people under the line-of-sight scenario and a mean accuracy of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$98.07\%$</tex-math></inline-formula> in breathing rate estimation of nine people under the NLOS scenario, both with 63 s of measurement. Moreover, TR-BREATH can estimate the number of people with an error around 1. We also demonstrate that TR-BREATH is robust against packet loss and motions. With the prevailing of WiFi, TR-BREATH can be applied for in-home and real-time breathing monitoring.