Wi-Sneeze - Sneeze Sensing using Wi-Fi Signals

ABSTRACT

Sneezes play a key role in transferring respiratory diseases such as COVID-19 between infectious and susceptible individuals where the timely monitoring and alerting for sneezes can be important in preventing the spread of such diseases. This paper presents Wi-Sneeze, a Wi-Fi based passive radar for sneeze sensing using Wi-Fi signals, as a promising solution to detect the potentially harmful exhaled volume-based sneeze droplets. Using the size distributions of the droplets exhaled by sneezes, an accurate volume RCS for the sneeze droplets is calculated, leading to the computation of the SNR which enable the range prediction for detecting the sneeze droplets. Experimental trials are conducted for real human sneezes and using the associated signal processing schemes, the Doppler frequency of the sneeze droplets can be prominently detected and localized in range. In addition, advanced signal processing techniques are used to improve the performance of the sneeze droplets detections. These promising results clearly validated the concept and feasibility of Wi-Sneeze in a practical environment.