Hand-Held Radar for People Tracking in Indoor Scenarios

In this paper, a portable RFID reader operating at the frequency of 2.45 GHz is described: it exploits the Monopulse RADAR technique with the added capability of electronic beam-steering. This architecture has already demonstrated its effectiveness in multiple tags accurate localization in harsh electromagnetic indoor environments: here, the additional capability of simultaneous tracking of multiple dynamic tagged entities (objects or people) is presented. The proposed system is able to precisely detect the angular position of the tags; a simple algorithm based on the received signal strength allows to fast estimate the distance of the tags from the reader with satisfying accuracy. Thanks to this simple and light reader, long-term people habits and ambient occupancy in typical indoor scenarios can be accurately monitored in almost real time.