Low cost respiration sensing using mm wave radar

A monitoring system for a patient, comprising:

• a distance sensor configured to emit an emitted signal into a local environment away from the patient and to sense a reflected signal corresponding to the emitted signal reflected off an object in the local environment;
• and
• a controller communicatively coupled to the distance sensor, wherein the controller is configured to:
• detect a plurality of movements corresponding to a change in distance between the distance sensor and the object based on the reflected signal;
• filter, from the plurality of movements, a musculoskeletal motion of the patient, thereby generating a filtered data set;
• and
• determine a rate of biological movement of the patient based on the filtered data set.

A method for determining a physiological rate of a patient, comprising:

• emitting, by a distance sensor, an emitted signal into a local environment away from the patient;
• sensing, by the distance sensor, a reflected signal resulting from a reflection of the emitted signal off an object in the local environment;
• detecting a change in distance between the distance sensor and the object based on the reflected signal to collect a plurality of distance data;
• identifying, in the plurality of distance data, a first distance data attributed to local movement of the patient and a second distance data attributed to movement of the object;
• and
• determining the physiological rate of the patient based on the first distance data.