Driver's vital-signs monitoring with a single 60GHz sensor

Many fatal traffic accidents caused by professional drivers are attributed not only to fatigue and stress, but also to heart and cardiovascular disease. Heartbeat interval (HBI) is one of very important vital signs which indicate sudden change in driver's physical condition such as heart disease and stress. And blood pressure, especially continuous blood pressure (CBP), is associated with cardiovascular disease. However, there are no reports on driver's HBI and CBP monitoring as far as the authors know. This paper presents a millimeter-wave vital signs sensor to simultaneously monitor driver's HBI and CBP in a non-contact manner. Measurement was conducted while driving and each measured vital sign was evaluated using correlation analysis and Bland-Altman with a fingertip photo-plethysmograph and cuff-based BP monitor.