APPENDIX A

DESCRIPTIVE ANSWERS

TASK 1 Breathing Rate Estimation and Signal Smoothing

Q: Why do you observe a high peak at a frequency of 0 Hz in the original phase signal?

ANS:
IT COULD BE THAT THE PERSON IS EXHALING OR COUGHING WHEN THE EXPERIMENT
STARTED

Q: You will observe that the filtered output in part (c) is a smoothed-out version of the original
phase signal and appears to be evenly spread around the zero phase. Why do you think the
specific filter implemented in part (c) induces this behavior?

ANS:
THE SMOOTHNESS IS DUE TO THE REMOVAL OF LOWER ENERGIES FREQUENCIES THAT PRODUCE WAVES IN
A WAVE MAKING IT MORE LOCALIZED AND LESS SMOOTH. ALSO, SINCE ALL THE HIGH ENERGY FREQUENCIES ARE IN
THE RANGE OF 0.1HZ TO 1HZ THEREFORE THEY CONTINUE THE SAME PATH OF THE SHAPE OF THE GRAPH1

Task 3: Other Applications in Radio Sensing

Q: In this task, we ask you to brainstorm out-of-the-box ideas you may have in which contact-
less sensing using radio signals may be utilized. Your text description should include (a) The
application for which radio sensing could be used, (b) the technology that could be used, and (c)
a brief overview of the principles (to the best of your understanding) on which the use of the
technology in (b) could be used for the application in (a). (MAX 500 WORDS)

ANS:
There are many possible applications for example, a burglar alarm system which could
use a source on one side of the door and a receiver on the other; The source emits radio
waves and the receiver receives as soon as something passes the door through the
waves and hence the flow is disturbed resulting in the alarm being sound. Another
example is traffic control; a source with a sensor could be placed on top with the traffic
lights the source emits radio waves and the reflected waves are picked by the sensor,
according to the pattern of the reflected waves it could be found how many cars are
under the signal and it could be compared with other signals on the inter section and
then decided which signal turns green. (These examples have been though about by me
myself). One other possible use could be a smart home which automates activities such
as managing the air conditioning, home lighting and heating. This can be done with the
aid of the sensors which can keep track of the human activities inside a room. It can also
help elderly people who are alone in the home by observing any abnormalities in their
physical health using a wireless sensor. The sensor will confirm the human presence by
virtue of its vital signs such as respiration and heartbeats. (this example was taken from
the web)

Iyer, Brijesh, et al. “RF Sensor for Smart Home Application.” International

Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, 5 May 2016,

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13198-016-0468-5