Full-wave EM simulation analysis of human body blockage by dense 2D antenna arrays

TL;DR

This paper uses full-wave electromagnetic simulations to analyze how dense 2D antenna arrays can detect and localize human bodies indoors without active devices, advancing passive localization techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed dataset and analysis framework for human passive indoor localization using electromagnetic simulations with dense antenna arrays.

Findings

Electric field variations enable human detection.

Dense antenna deployment improves localization accuracy.

Simulation results support passive sensing applications.

Abstract

Recently, proposals of human-sensing-based services for cellular and local area networks have brought indoor localization to the attention of several research groups. In response to these stimuli, various Device-Free Localization (DFL) techniques, also known as Passive Localization methods, have emerged by exploiting ambient signals to locate and track individuals that do not carry any electronic device. This study delves into human passive indoor localization through full-wave electromagnetic simulations. For the scope, we exploit simulations from the commercial tool FEKO software that employs the Method of Moments (MoM). In particular, we collect and analyze the electric field values in a scenario constituted by a dense 2D/3D deployment of receivers in the presence of an anthropomorphic mobile target. The paper describes in detail the collected dataset and provides a first analysis based on a statistical approach. Possible use cases are also investigated through examples in the context of passive localization, sensing, and imaging.