Gait Classification Based on Micro-Doppler Effect

In this paper, an improved state-space method (SSM) is proposed for gait feature extraction. By introducing zero-phase component analysis Whitening (ZCA Whitening) and an algorithm to search estimated echo as the preprocessing method, pedestrian echoes are divided into three groups according to the frequency probability density: torso, feet, and other segments. Two channels of echoes are selected as inputs to the SSM, which is employed to identify the corresponding micro-Doppler trajectory. On this basis, five gait features of torso amplitude, stride length, walking cycle, torso maximum speed, and feet maximum speed are extracted. Simulation based on the Boulic model, compared with the traditional SSM, demonstrated that there is no need to estimate the model order and that a more accurate torso micro-Doppler trajectory and effective micro-motion features of the feet can be obtained by the proposed method. Finally, 77 GHz FMCW radar was used to collect the echoes of four pedestrians. The classifier was designed based on a support vector machine (SVM), and the classification experiment verified the effectiveness of the extracted gait features.