Contactless material sensing with wireless mmwave vibrometry

This paper introduces RFVibe, a system that enables cheap, generalizable object identification using millimeter wave wireless signals. RFVibe is contactless, does not require careful positioning of the object, and can generalize to new locations and setups. Here, we introduce a new approach that combines wireless signals with acoustic signals for material sensing. RFVibe plays an audio sound next to the object that generates micro-vibrations in the object. These micro-vibrations can be captured by shining a millimeter wave radar signal on the object and analyzing the phase of the reflected wireless signal. RFVibe then extracts several features including resonance frequencies and vibration modes, dampening time of vibrations, and wireless reflection coefficients. These features are then used to enable more accurate and generalizable identification than current methods. We implement RFVibe using an off-the-shelf millimeter wave radar and acoustic speaker and evaluate it on 23 objects of 7 material types. We show that it can outperform state-of-the-art methods for wireless material sensing, while generalizing to new environments.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Shanbhag, Hailan Zhang

Contributors dc:contributor

• Al-Hassanieh, Haitham

• Millimeter-wave
• Wireless Sensing
• Vibrometry
• Material Classification

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Hailan Shanbhag

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117600

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F117600