Pulse Wave Cartography Laboratory
Service Description
Overview This service provides access to a Pulse Wave Cartography Laboratory dedicated to the mapping of human cardiovascular signals. The facility captures pulse-wave data by synchronizing non-contact radar with contact sensors. The laboratory includes a custom two-axis measurement setup that allows a radar node to move above a participant, recording skin-surface micro-movements caused by the cardiac cycle. By combining these non-contact spatial measurements with simultaneous electrocardiogram and impedance cardiography data, the service provides structured datasets for cardiovascular research and device evaluation.
How can the service help you? This service assists in validating cardiovascular monitoring technologies, such as non-contact sleep monitors or wearable sensors, against standard clinical signals. It addresses the requirement for mapped, synchronized ground-truth data. The service outputs synchronized, multi-axis datasets that correlate experimental sensor data with established reference signals, providing empirical data for device verification and algorithm training.
How will the service be delivered? The service is performed in the biomedical engineering laboratory in Erlangen, Germany. A typical data collection session involves participants in a resting supine position while the two-axis radar system is maneuvered above them. The laboratory staff manages the hardware setup, the positioning of the radar node, and the synchronization. Upon completion, clients receive the aligned dataset.
Additional information Provider description Our team has deep expertise in automated movement analysis, multimodal behavioral tracking, and complex data synchronization. With advanced facilities dedicated to biomedical engineering and affective computing, we offer SMEs expert guidance and state-of-the-art testing environments to develop, validate, and certify AI-driven healthcare solutions and wearable technologies.
Technical details The laboratory acquires synchronized pulse wave dynamics using electrical, optical, acoustic, and electromagnetic sensors. Reference Signal Acquisition: Physiological monitoring is performed using a BIOPAC MP36 system, capturing Electrocardiogram (ECG), Impedance Cardiography (ICG), Photoplethysmography (PPG), and Phonocardiography (PCG). Non-Contact Spatial Mapping: The setup includes a 61 GHz continuous-wave radar node (EmRad system, Technical University of Hamburg; Albrecht et al., 2024). It is mounted on a two-axis mechanical measurement setup for the spatial tracking of cardiac micro-vibrations across the participant's body surface. Auxiliary Measurements: A body scale is available for biometric profiling, including body fat percentage and body composition metrics. Software & Synchronization: Data acquisition and temporal alignment are managed through Biopac Acqknowledge and the EmRad software.
Service customization The service can be adapted to specific technical requirements. The spatial trajectory, scanning speed, and measurement points of the two-axis radar system can be customized based on the specified region of interest (e.g., focusing on the thoracic cavity or peripheral arterial sites). The reference signals can also be selectively applied; clients may opt to use only the ECG and PPG sensors if ICG and PCG are not required for their study.
