CHEDDAR Demonstrates Contactless RF Sensing for Human Activity and Vital Signs at MWC Barcelona

Researchers from Imperial College London are demonstrating how wireless signals can be used to monitor human activity and vital signs without the need for wearable devices or cameras at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2026.

The demonstration, presented at the Federated Telecoms Hubs and CHEDDAR stand (Hall 7, Stand 7B43), showcases how radio frequency sensing technologies can enable contactless monitoring of breathing patterns, heart rate and human activity in indoor environments.

By analysing how radio signals interact with the human body, the system can detect subtle physiological movements such as breathing without requiring physical contact or wearable sensors. The system achieves 97 per cent breathing accuracy and 95 percent heart-rate accuracy in non-line-of-sight environments, while optimised power distribution enables reliable monitoring across varying distances and angles.

This approach demonstrates how future sensing-enabled wireless networks could support a range of healthcare and wellbeing applications, including remote health monitoring, assisted living and smart environments.

Unlike camera-based monitoring systems, RF sensing technologies can operate without capturing visual data, offering a privacy-preserving alternative for continuous monitoring in homes, hospitals and care facilities.

Research Behind the Demonstration

Research Behind the Demonstration

The work builds on a growing body of research exploring how radio frequency signals can be used to detect human movement and physiological activity.

Studies have shown how RF sensing and software-defined radio platforms can enable machine learning systems to recognise human activity by analysing how movement alters wireless signals.

Related research from the CHEDDAR community includes:

RFiDAR: Contactless RFID and Radar Data Fusion for Enhanced Human Activity Recognition
https://cheddarhub.org/publications/

RadSpecFusion: Dynamic attention weighting for multi-radar human activity recognition
https://cheddarhub.org/publications/

RF Sensing for Breathing and Vital Signs

Beyond activity recognition, RF sensing technologies can detect extremely small chest movements associated with breathing and heart activity. Recent research has demonstrated that passive wireless signals can be used to analyse breathing patterns and even screen for respiratory diseases using machine-learning models.

Related research from the CHEDDAR community includes:

Non-contact lung disease classification via orthogonal frequency division multiplexing-based passive 6G integrated sensing and communication.
https://cheddarhub.org/publications/

Towards Sensing-Enabled 6G Networks

Together, these advances highlight how future wireless systems may evolve beyond connectivity to support sensing-enabled networks capable of monitoring human activity, health and environmental conditions.

As part of the CHEDDAR Hub’s research into next-generation communications, this work explores how integrated sensing and communication technologies could enable intelligent environments and new digital health applications in future 6G networks.

Visitors attending Mobile World Congress Barcelona can learn more about the demonstration at the Federated Telecoms Hubs and CHEDDAR stand in Hall 7, Stand 7B43.