Description

Micro-Doppler signatures are the time-frequency patterns produced by sub-body parts (limbs, chest wall, fingers) on top of bulk body Doppler. The classic example is gait: torso fundamental at ~1 Hz Doppler, with arm and leg harmonics at multiples. They are the discriminative feature for gait, gesture, and fall classification in both WiFi-CSI and radar pipelines.

When it's used

  • Identity / activity / gesture classification
  • Vital-sign sensing (chest-wall micro-Doppler)
  • Distinguishing fall from sit-down

Limitations

  • Requires narrow-band Doppler resolution → longer windows
  • Multi-person micro-Doppler interferes on the same bins
  • Susceptible to clutter without spatial separation

Source Papers

  • cakoni2023_7150 — micro-Doppler radar HAR
  • ullmann2023_0ac3 — micro-Doppler HAR
  • ahmad2024_8639 — micro-Doppler features in CSI HAR
  • guarino2026_e72c — micro-Doppler in CSI sensing

3 vault papers use this method

Titles and DOIs only — no abstracts, no analyses.

  • Gait recognition using wifi signals 2016 DOI ↗
  • Group Counting Using Micro-Doppler Signatures From a 77GHz FMCW Radar 2023 DOI ↗
  • Passive WiFi Radar for Human Sensing Using a Stand-Alone Access Point 2021 DOI ↗