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Pulsed Millimeter Wave Radar for Hand Gesture Sensing and Classification

Fhager, Lars Ohlsson LU orcid ; Heunisch, Sebastian LU ; Dahlberg, Hannes ; Evertsson, Anton and Wernersson, Lars Erik LU (2019) In IEEE Sensors Letters 3(12).
Abstract

A pulsed millimeter wave radar operating at a frame rate of 144 Hz is utilized to record 2160 scattering signatures of 12 generic hand gestures. Gesture recognition is achieved by machine learning, utilizing transfer learning on a pretrained convolutional neural network. This yields excellent classification results with a validation accuracy of 99.5%, based on a 60% training versus 40% validation split. The corresponding confusion matrix is also presented, showing a high level of classification orthogonality between the tested gestures. This is the first demonstration where data from a pulsed millimeter wave radar is used for gesture recognition by machine learning. It proves that the range-time envelope representation of high... (More)

A pulsed millimeter wave radar operating at a frame rate of 144 Hz is utilized to record 2160 scattering signatures of 12 generic hand gestures. Gesture recognition is achieved by machine learning, utilizing transfer learning on a pretrained convolutional neural network. This yields excellent classification results with a validation accuracy of 99.5%, based on a 60% training versus 40% validation split. The corresponding confusion matrix is also presented, showing a high level of classification orthogonality between the tested gestures. This is the first demonstration where data from a pulsed millimeter wave radar is used for gesture recognition by machine learning. It proves that the range-time envelope representation of high frame-rate data from a pulsed radar is suitable for hand gesture recognition. Further improvements are expected for more complex detection schemes and tailored neural networks.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
classification, convolutional neural network, gesture sensing, hand gesture recognition, machine learning, Microwave/millimeter wave sensors, millimeter wave radar, pulsed radar, transfer learning
in
IEEE Sensors Letters
volume
3
issue
12
article number
3502404
publisher
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
external identifiers
  • scopus:85082634141
ISSN
2475-1472
DOI
10.1109/LSENS.2019.2953022
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1c34f121-df71-43a7-b39c-5caf5090917c
date added to LUP
2020-04-28 16:20:32
date last changed
2025-10-14 12:15:49
@article{1c34f121-df71-43a7-b39c-5caf5090917c,
  abstract     = {{<p>A pulsed millimeter wave radar operating at a frame rate of 144 Hz is utilized to record 2160 scattering signatures of 12 generic hand gestures. Gesture recognition is achieved by machine learning, utilizing transfer learning on a pretrained convolutional neural network. This yields excellent classification results with a validation accuracy of 99.5%, based on a 60% training versus 40% validation split. The corresponding confusion matrix is also presented, showing a high level of classification orthogonality between the tested gestures. This is the first demonstration where data from a pulsed millimeter wave radar is used for gesture recognition by machine learning. It proves that the range-time envelope representation of high frame-rate data from a pulsed radar is suitable for hand gesture recognition. Further improvements are expected for more complex detection schemes and tailored neural networks.</p>}},
  author       = {{Fhager, Lars Ohlsson and Heunisch, Sebastian and Dahlberg, Hannes and Evertsson, Anton and Wernersson, Lars Erik}},
  issn         = {{2475-1472}},
  keywords     = {{classification; convolutional neural network; gesture sensing; hand gesture recognition; machine learning; Microwave/millimeter wave sensors; millimeter wave radar; pulsed radar; transfer learning}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  publisher    = {{IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}},
  series       = {{IEEE Sensors Letters}},
  title        = {{Pulsed Millimeter Wave Radar for Hand Gesture Sensing and Classification}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LSENS.2019.2953022}},
  doi          = {{10.1109/LSENS.2019.2953022}},
  volume       = {{3}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}