03/19/2024
By Victor Ramirez

The Kennedy College of Sciences, Department of Physics & Applied Physics, invites you to attend a Master’s thesis defense by Victor Ramirez on "mmWave Radar for Tracking Patient Motion in the Medical Setting."

Candidate Name: Victor Ramirez
Degree: Master's of Science
Defense Date: Friday, March 29, 2024
Time: 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.
Location: This will be a virtual defense via Zoom. Those interested in attending should contact MS candidate Victor_Ramirez1@student.uml.edu at least 24 hours prior to the defense to request access to the meeting.

Thesis Title: mmWave Radar for Tracking Patient Motion in the Medical Setting

Advisor: Robert Giles, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus and Director of Biomedical Terahertz Technology Center (BTTC)

Committee:

  • Cecil Joseph, Ph.D. Physics and Applied Physics
  • Viktor Podolskiy, Ph.D. Physics and Applied Physics

Abstract: One of the primary issues that medical professionals face during imaging their patients lies in the need for the patient to remain still for extended periods of time. Despite the high accuracy that these imaging techniques, such as MRI, can produce, it can sometimes be very difficult for a patient to remain still for a variety of reasons. Additionally, current tracking systems are obscured by patient clothing that can hinder tracking performance. Thus, the requirement of an accurate non-ionizing motion tracking system capable of being performed through patient garment must be met. mmWave radar is proposed to mitigate the need for the patient to be still as technological innovation has enabled imagery to be performed on a quick, successive basis. These radars are already currently being used in other facets of every-day life such as car sensors which has brought down the cost of these systems and made them widely available. Furthermore, radar in the mmWave regime also retains a very fine resolution that can be achieved through the development of phase sensitive image subtraction techniques. These resolutions can be sub-wavelength and on the order of slight movements such as that of a patient during medical imaging (breathing, coughing, etc.). mmWave radar also has the advantage of penetrating through patient clothing. The purpose of this research was to assess mmWave radar's capability of serving as an adequate imaging and tracking solution in the medical regime.