Recently the Norwegian company, Novelda/XeThru released anew short-range radar system known as X4M200 (https://www.xethru.com/x4m200-respiration-sensor.html) with embedded software for breathing detection. The sensitivity of this pulsed radar system is sufficient for picking up body vibrations due to heart rate at close range. Limiting heart-rate sensing to humans in stationary positions (i.e. sitting in a chair or lying in bed) we might be able to detect heart rate and collect data for heart rate variability analysis.
A typical stationary position for students at IFI is sitting in front of a screen working. The XeThru module is powered by USB and could easily be mounted facing the person sitting in front of the screen.
The project is to use available software from XeThru for collecting data and develop code for HRV measurements of computer operators. Some proposed milestones:
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Reliably measure heart rate (HR) of person in from of the computer using adequate signal processing (filtering).
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HRV analysis for mental state assessment. A number of methods are proposed and some software is also available (MATLAB). See http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169260713002599 for more info and adopt and implement code for the following mental states:
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Drowsiness or sleepiness
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Mental stress
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Fatigue or exhaustion
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Develop a suitable classification system possibly by using machine learning indicating if these mental states are observed for the individual in front of the screen.
This project will require skills in low-level programming, instrumentation, signal processing and simple classification/adaptive software/machine-learning.