In this talk, we represent recent advances of radio frequency (RF) sensing technology for healthcare, specifically in monitoring human activities inside homes, retirement facilities and hospitals. Sensing technologies and data analytics are considered powerful tools in efficient indoor monitoring of human activities. Monitoring of activities of daily living (ADL) can identify falls, which are considered as the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for people aged 65 and over. It can also detect variants in activity patterns and changes in routines and lifestyle as well as the state of physical, cognitive and psychological health of the person. In addition to monitoring ADL, RF-based gesture recognition using hands and arms is shown to be an important contactless technology for Man-Machine-Interface (MMI). Adding to the indoor applications, RF-based vital sign monitoring has vast medical use, as respiration and heartbeats are essential diagnostic barometers for many health problems. More recently, RF sensors have also been proposed for gait analysis for rehabilitation and timely diagnosis of many neurological, orthopedic and medical conditions. Changes in gait patterns can also be precursors of falls. In this talk, we present successful examples in each of the above application areas and discuss pertinent open problems worthy of investigations.
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