HERMA—heartbeat microwave authentication

• US 9,870,457 B2
• Filed: 08/17/2015
• Issued: 01/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Original Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Inventors: Lux, James Paul, Chow, Edward, McKee, Michael Ray, Haque, Salman-ul Mohammed, Tkacenko, Andre
• Primary Examiner(s): Blouin, Mark
• Application Number:
  US14/828,452
• Publication Number:
  US 20160048672A1
• Time in Patent Office: 883 Days
• Field of Search: 340 582
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02444 Details of sensor A61B5/02427 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0507 using microwaves or terahertz waves
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/065 Continuous authentication

Abstract

Systems and methods for identifying and/or authenticating individuals utilizing microwave sensing modules are disclosed. A HEaRtbeat Microwave Authentication (HERMA) system can enable the active identification and/or authentication of a user by analyzing reflected RF signals that contain a person'"'"'s unique characteristics related to their heartbeats. An illumination signal is transmitted towards a person where a reflected signal captures the motion of the skin and tissue (i.e. displacement) due to the person'"'"'s heartbeats. The HERMA system can utilize existing transmitters in a mobile device (e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cellphone signals) as the illumination source with at least one external receive antenna. The received reflected signals can be pre-processed and analyzed to identify and/or authenticate a user.

Claims

1. A microwave sensor module for authenticating a person using data related to the person'"'"'s heartbeat, comprising:

at least one transmitter configured to transmit a continuous wave (CW) radio frequency (RF) signal;

at least one receiver configured to receive a reflected microwave signal from a person that contains information related to the person'"'"'s heartbeat;

a processor;

a memory containing an authentication application, wherein the authentication application configures the processor to;

receive a portion of the transmitted RF signal using the at least one receiver, wherein the received portion of the transmitted RF signal is utilized as a reference for coherent detection;

extract heartbeat data from the reflected signal related to displacement as a result of the person'"'"'s heartbeat;

compare the extracted heartbeat data against at least one template profile; and

authenticate the person based upon the comparison of the extracted heartbeat data and the at least one template profile.

2. The microwave sensor module of claim 1, wherein the at least one transmitter is built in to a mobile device.

3. The microwave sensor module of claim 2, wherein the transmitted RF signal is a Bluetooth signal.

4. The microwave sensor module of claim 2, wherein the transmitted RF signal is a WI-FI signal.

5. The microwave sensor module of claim 2, wherein the transmitted RF signal is a cellular phone signal.

6. The microwave sensor module of claim 1, wherein the at least one transmitter is built in to an external illumination source.

7. The microwave sensor module of claim 1, wherein a smoothed differentiator pre-filter is utilized to enhance the heartbeat data.

8. A microwave sensor module for authenticating a person using data related to the person'"'"'s heartbeat, comprising:

at least one transmitter configured to transmit a continuous wave (CW) radio frequency (RF) signal;

at least one receiver configured to receive a reflected microwave signal from a person that contains information related to the person'"'"'s heartbeat;

a processor;

a memory containing an authentication application, wherein the authentication application configures the processor to;

extract heartbeat data from the reflected signal related to displacement as a result of the person'"'"'s heartbeat;

compare the extracted heartbeat data against at least one template profile; and

authenticate the person based upon the comparison of the extracted heartbeat data and the at least one template profile;

wherein the authentication application further configures the processor to extract heartbeat data from the reflected signal by;

extracting raw data from the reflected signal by constructing an I/Q radar returns matrix and I/Q time series waveforms;

bandpass filtering the I/Q time series waveforms to remove effects due to respiration and to isolate heartbeat only I/Q time series waveforms;

translating and rotating the heartbeat only I/Q time series waveforms to lie along the Q-axis, where a scaled imaginary part yields heartbeat displacement waveforms;

segmenting the heartbeat displacement waveforms into non-overlapping data windows (DW) of a fixed duration; and

removing anomalous DW from the data set, where anomalous DW include any DW whose root mean square or maximum absolute value is outside of a specified interval.

9. The microwave sensor module of claim 8, wherein the authentication application further configures the processor to extract heartbeat data from the reflected signal by:

smoothing the I/Q time series waveforms to mitigate against outlier data points caused by motion artifacts;

removing affine trends from the I/Q time series waveforms to mitigate against stationary clutter effects; and

removing affine trends from the heartbeat only I/Q time series waveforms to remove residual clutter effects.

10. A method of authenticating a person using data related to the person'"'"'s heartbeat, the method comprising:

transmitting a continuous wave (CW) radio frequency (RF) signal using at least one transmitter;

receiving a portion of the transmitted RF signal using at least one receiver, wherein the received portion of the transmitted RF signal is utilized as a reference for coherent detection;

receiving a reflected microwave signal from a person using the at least one receiver, where the reflected signal contains information related to the person'"'"'s heartbeat;

extracting heartbeat data from the reflected signal, where the heartbeat data is related to displacement as a result of the person'"'"'s heartbeat;

comparing the extracted heartbeat data against at least one template profile; and

authenticating the person based upon the comparison of the extracted heartbeat data and the at least one template profile.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one transmitter is built in to a mobile device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the transmitted RF signal is a Bluetooth signal.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the transmitted RF signal is a WI-FI signal.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the transmitted RF signal is a cellular phone signal.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one transmitter is built in to an external illumination source.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the extracting heartbeat data from the reflected signal comprises:

extracting raw data from the reflected signal by constructing an I/Q radar returns matrix and I/Q time series waveforms;

bandpass filtering the I/Q time series waveforms to remove effects due to respiration and to isolate heartbeat only I/Q time series waveforms;

translating and rotating the heartbeat only I/Q time series waveforms to lie along the Q-axis, where a scaled imaginary part yields heartbeat displacement waveforms;

segmenting the heartbeat displacement waveforms into non-overlapping data windows (DW) of a fixed duration; and

removing anomalous DW from the data set, where anomalous DW include any DW whose root mean square or maximum absolute value is outside of a specified interval.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the extracting heartbeat data from the reflected signal further comprises:

smoothing the I/Q time series waveforms to mitigate against outlier data points caused by motion artifacts;

removing affine trends from the I/Q time series waveforms to mitigate against stationary clutter effects; and

removing affine trends from the heartbeat only I/Q time series waveforms to remove residual clutter effects.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein a smoothed differentiator pre-filter is utilized to enhance the heartbeat data.

19. A microwave sensor module for authenticating a person using data related to the person'"'"'s heartbeat, comprising:

at least one transmitter configured to transmit a continuous wave (CW) radio frequency (RF) signal;

at least one receiver configured to receive a reflected microwave signal from a person that contains information related to the person'"'"'s heartbeat;

a processor;

a memory containing an authentication application, wherein the authentication application configures the processor to;

receive a portion of the transmitted RF signal using the at least one receiver, wherein the received portion of the transmitted RF signal is utilized for noise cancellation;

extract heartbeat data from the reflected signal related to displacement as a result of the person'"'"'s heartbeat;

compare the extracted heartbeat data against at least one template profile; and

authenticate the person based upon the comparison of the extracted heartbeat data and the at least one template profile.

20. The microwave sensor module of claim 19, wherein the at least one transmitter is built in to a mobile device.

21. The microwave sensor module of claim 19, wherein the at least one transmitter is built in to an external illumination source.

22. A method of authenticating a person using data related to the person'"'"'s heartbeat, the method comprising:

transmitting a continuous wave (CW) radio frequency (RF) signal using at least one transmitter;

receiving a portion of the transmitted RF signal using at least one receiver, wherein the received portion of the transmitted RF signal is utilized for noise cancellation;

receiving a reflected microwave signal from a person using the at least one receiver, where the reflected signal contains information related to the person'"'"'s heartbeat;

extracting heartbeat data from the reflected signal, where the heartbeat data is related to displacement as a result of the person'"'"'s heartbeat;

comparing the extracted heartbeat data against at least one template profile; and

authenticating the person based upon the comparison of the extracted heartbeat data and the at least one template profile.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the at least one transmitter is built in to a mobile device.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the at least one transmitter is built in to an external illumination source.