Tiny radar biometric sensor could identify people by their heartbeat — researchers

A seemingly impossibly small radar sensor capable of detecting biometrics including heart beats has been created by researchers at the University of California, Davis.

The sensor is described as being the size of a sesame seed and funded by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research.

While that seems random, the battery-powered sensor, which was built in the school’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, is so sensitive, it can hear a small leaf thinning as it runs out of water.

It can detect vibrations that are a hundred times as small as a human hair. According to UC Davis, the millimeter-wave sensor the team created is inexpensive to manufacture at scale.

The researchers say they are building on previous designs that used more power than was desirable and that had difficulty separating signal from noise.

Instead of working on a hardware answer to the noise problem, which would have increased the need for power, they used software on the sensor itself to cancel noise.

It is considered a short-range sensor, but it is unclear just how short the range is.

Biometric Update has reported on similar technology since 2020, but it involved infrared lasers connected to biometric sensors that could identify people by the way their clothes vibrate over their heart. Development began in 2010 by Ideal Innovations and Washington University.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometric sensors  |  biometrics  |  heartbeat biometrics  |  surveillance