US 12,285,246 B2
Heart and lung monitoring with coherent signal dispersion
Thomas G. Pratt, Niles, MI (US); Jeffrey G. Mueller, South Bend, IN (US); and Robert D. Kossler, South Bend, IN (US)
Assigned to University of Notre Dame du Lac, South Bend, IN (US)
Filed by University of Notre Dame du Lac, South Bend, IN (US)
Filed on Jul. 24, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/225,335.
Application 18/225,335 is a continuation of application No. 16/483,022, abandoned, previously published as PCT/US2018/016927, filed on Feb. 5, 2018.
Application 16/483,022 is a continuation in part of application No. 14/936,536, filed on Nov. 9, 2015, granted, now 10,605,841, issued on Mar. 31, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/454,437, filed on Feb. 3, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2024/0000333 A1, Jan. 4, 2024
Int. Cl. A61B 5/05 (2021.01); A61B 5/00 (2006.01); A61B 5/02 (2006.01); A61B 5/021 (2006.01); A61B 5/024 (2006.01); A61B 5/08 (2006.01); A61B 5/091 (2006.01); A61B 5/11 (2006.01); A61B 5/113 (2006.01)
CPC A61B 5/05 (2013.01) [A61B 5/1102 (2013.01); A61B 5/1126 (2013.01); A61B 5/113 (2013.01); A61B 5/6891 (2013.01); A61B 5/6892 (2013.01); A61B 5/02007 (2013.01); A61B 5/02028 (2013.01); A61B 5/021 (2013.01); A61B 5/02444 (2013.01); A61B 5/0816 (2013.01); A61B 5/091 (2013.01)] 40 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for sensing a physiological characteristic of a subject, the method comprising:
providing, in proximity to one or more portions of the subject's body, at least three antennas, comprising at least one transmitter antenna and at least one receiver antenna, wherein at least one of the antennas comprises a pair of substantially orthogonally-polarized antennas configured to enable characterization of the combined signal of at least one line of sight (LOS) signal and at least one multipath signal based on their polarization states for physiological sensing;
coherently obtaining, at the at least one receiver antenna, obtained signals comprising the at least one LOS signal and the at least one multipath signal, wherein propagation of the at least one multipath signal involves one or more of reflection, diffraction, or scattering by or through the one or more portions of the subject's body, and wherein the coherent obtainment comprises use of a synchronized clock and a local oscillator in a plurality of channels at both the at least one transmitter antenna and the at least one receiver antenna, wherein the coherently obtaining maintains phase coherence between the transmitted signal and the obtained signals across a plurality of sub-bands, enabling accurate comparison of amplitude and phase information;
determining the amplitude and phase information of the plurality of sub-bands for each of the obtained signals by transforming each of the obtained signals into a frequency domain; and determining comparison values by analyzing the amplitude and phase differences between received signal components and corresponding transmitted signal components, and using these values to calculate Jones vectors or Stokes parameters for the plurality of sub-bands;
determining polarization information based on the comparison values, wherein the polarization information is derived from the calculated Jones vectors or Stokes parameters, and further characterizes the physiological characteristics of the subject, thereby enabling enhanced sensing of physiological characteristics.