Sleep holds the key to understanding our health and wellbeing. As traditional wearables fall short, contactless radar sensing is redefining sleep monitoring—accurate, seamless, and truly non-intrusive. By Dr. Jae-Eun Lee, CEO of bitsensing & Francis Foo, Vice President and Regional Marketing Head, Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific.
Sleep is far more than a daily restorative: how we sleep offers a vital insight into our longer-term health and our quality of life. Sleep issues are often a sign of other serious problems, and early detection can boost health and even save lives. But even in our data-driven world, it’s still often hard to gain a truly accurate insight into sleep in a non-intrusive and comfortable way. That’s because the technologies that we rely on to measure sleep today are not adequate – and it’s time for a new, seamless, contactless approach.
With awareness growing of the importance of understanding our sleep and its relationship to our overall health, the sleep technology market is booming around the world. Globally, the sleep tech market is expected to grow past $65 billion by 2033, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.8%. But while sleep tech is increasingly marketable, sleep problems and disorders remain an enormous issue for millions worldwide. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects nearly a billion people worldwide, with a shocking 80% undiagnosed. In the U.S. alone, 30 million adults are believed to have OSA, and one-third of adults sleep less than seven hours per night.
Why we need a new approach
The problem is that consumer wearables, while popular, still fall short on a number of key metrics. They’re not comfortable, they’re less accurate compared to medical polysomnography tests, and they also fall short in terms of practicality on a number of levels. The devices have to be worn every night, require frequent charging and can be limited in their accuracy when it comes to detecting stages such as light or REM sleep. Wearables are also not practical in many environments including hospitals, elder care or shared homes.
This is why contactless radar sensing offers so many advantages. By making sleep monitoring ambient and invisible, it unlocks the true potential of sleep monitoring to improve lives, without burdening users. With contactless radar sensing, users do not have to change their habits or wear equipment to bed to monitor their sleep.
Smarter monitoring
The latest radar chipsets are also small, discreet, and easily integrated into TVs, air conditioners, care robots, or bedside devices, meaning that other technology can become ‘sleep aware’. Ordinary household technology can be easily upgraded to offer continuous insights on sleep quality, without intruding onto a user’s privacy, space or daily routine. This makes radar sensors a great choice in contexts such as elder care facilities, for example, where camera sensors would be intrusive.
Beyond simply monitoring and analyzing sleep (which radar systems can do with a similar accuracy to polysomnography tests, just minus the cumbersome equipment and need for stays in medical facilities), radar-based systems offer myriad possibilities for integration with other technology. In a smart television, for example, a radar-based detector could sense when someone falls asleep and pause playback. In home security, sensors could spot which occupants are asleep and which are awake, adding more awareness to alarm decisions. While users sleep, air conditioners can adjust airflow and temperature based on sleep phases, boosting energy efficiency and comfort. In contexts such as elder care, systems can detect apnea or irregular breathing, alerting health staff to potentially serious problems before they become dangerous.
Safe and secure
With radar sensors, there is no camera and no microphone, and data is processed securely on-device, so there are no issues around privacy and ‘ambient intelligence’. Newer systems are moving from single-person scenarios where one monitor monitors the sleep of one person, towards multi-person detection, which can distinguish between multiple individuals in settings such as family homes, care centers or hospital wards. Radar is able to do this reliably and respectfully, without intruding on privacy. In industry, radar has long been prized for its ability to work in low visibility and at long range, even in cluttered settings. That same valuable capability is now coming to wellness technology.
Radar can ‘read’ sleep levels even if it’s a child and parent sharing a room, or a couple sleeping side by side, without requiring intrusive wearables or cameras. Sleep intelligence does not need to be worn, touched or noticed. With radar, sleep sensing can work in the background, offering actionable, data-based insights to help people make healthier choices. In the smarter living spaces of tomorrow, radar-powered sleep integration offers the potential for truly seamless integration, spreading the ability to understand sleep to millions. Radar is a health and wellness revolution whose time has come.
About the authors: Jae-Eun Lee is the Co-Chief Executive Officer at bitsensing, a company specializing in advanced radar solutions aimed at enhancing the reliability and convenience of everyday living. Prior to founding bitsensing, Jae-Eun was a Senior Research Engineer at Mando Corporation, a leading global Tier 1 OEM and supplier of automotive components. Francis Foo is Vice President and Regional Marketing Head, Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific.
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