2009 International Conference on Emerging Trends in Electronic and Photonic Devices & Systems (ELECTRO-2009)

Study of Effect of Room Window on Through Wall

Imaging in UWB range
Abhay N. Gaikwad, Dharmendra Singh and M. J. Nigam
Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
Roorkee, India
e-mail dharmfec@gmail.com
The SFCW radar has some advantages over other radar
such as wider dynamic range, higher mean power and lower
noise figure.
Some of the problems posed to target detection in TWI
system are, strong interfering signal due to radiation of radar
transmitter, strong reflections from walls, absorption of
electromagnetic energy by walls which will reduce signal
strength of return signal, interference signals due to multiple
reflections from other objects. Detection scheme is proposed
in [3] using single and multiple view imaging. Detection
becomes worse when the area to be image becomes complex.
Presence of window in back wall of room will further
complicate detection in unknown environment. Refraction,
diffraction, dispersion, multipath and attenuation all affect
through wall object detection process. The design challenges
and issues related to through wall are discussed in [4]. Signal
processing techniques is use to reduce unwanted signal
(clutter) and enhance the target detection. Generally in signal
processing terms the techniques used for clutter separation are
called blind source/signal separation methods and is concerned
with the separation of a set of signals called source signals
from their mixtures signals, without acquaintance of any about
mixing background and sources [5]. Blind source separation is
the separation of a set of signals into a set of other signals, in
which either the regularity between the signals is minimized
by minimizing the decorrelation or the regularity between the
signals by maximizing the statistical independence. Singular
value decomposition (SVD) is used to separate data into
complementary subspaces called signal and clutter subspaces
in order to increase signal to clutter ratio [6]. In this paper we
extend our technique used in [6] to construct images using
back projection imaging algorithm.
The rest of paper is organized as follows: In section II,
brief information about the setup and data collection is
described. Section III describes methodology applied on data to
detect target with and without presence of window in back wall
of room. It presents algorithm with the help of flowchart in
which different signal processing steps are describes to extract
useful information about target from data and use it for
imaging. The results obtained using proposed algorithm is
discussed in section IV which is followed by conclusion in
section V.

Abstract In through wall imaging (TWI), detection is possible

due to dielectric contrasts between target and room environment.
Complexity increases if room consists of furnitures and other
objects beside desired target. Further detection of desired target
becomes complex with the presence of window in back wall of
room. Thus in this paper, effect of presence of window in back
wall of room is investigated on detection and imaging. A
detection technique is proposed in which signal processing
technique is applied to extract the target information from
clutter signal. A back projection imaging technique is applied to
image the target. For this purpose, indigenously a TWI system
based on step frequency continuous wave (SFCW) principle is
developed in ultra wide band (UWB) range of frequency (i.e.,
3.95 GHz to 5.85 GHz), plywood considered as wall and metallic
plate is considered as target behind the plywood wall. The results
are quite encouraging.
Keywords- Back projection, step frequency continuous wave
radar, singular value decomposition, window effect.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Different technologies are applicable for through wall

imaging (TWI) out of which most suitable is radar based
system which is still in pre-research stage. The brief outline of
through wall imaging is given in [1]. The electromagnetic
waves that are transmitted by the radar have to propagate
through the air, non metallic wall and other objects. In TWI,
radar must provide low frequencies for more penetration as
well as resolution should be as high as possible. So the
bandwidth of the radar must be large to obtain high resolution.
Thus there is tradeoff between resolution, penetration and
frequency. Radar based on step frequency continuous wave
(SFCW) principle in ultra wide band (UWB) range can be
used to achieve high range resolution along with synthetic
aperture technique to provide better cross range resolution.
According to FCC UWB systems can be defined as the system
having fractional bandwidth of 20% or larger at -10 dB cut-off
frequencies with a minimum bandwidth of 500MHz [2]. The
other advantage of using UWB is that it will help in
identification of target class and type because received signal
carries information not only about the target as a whole but
also about its separate elements.

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2009 International Conference on Emerging Trends in Electronic and Photonic Devices & Systems (ELECTRO-2009)

II.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND DATA COLLECTION

The measurement setup consists of step frequency

continuous (SFCW) radar as its transceiver. For measurement
of A-scan and B-scan, a scanner which allows antenna to
move in horizontal directions is used. The radar parameters
used in experiment are given in table 1. Since the numbers of
points are more, the time required to acquire one set of data
for A-scan will be more. Though the maximum room
dimension in down range is not more than 5 m, the maximum
unambiguous range is taken more so that the other irrelevant
signals will not affect target detection.
TABLE I.
Sr.No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Radar system Parameters

Parameters
Frequency range
Transmitted power
Number of frequency points
Range resolution
Cross range resolution*
Polarization
Antenna

Value
3.95 to 5.85 GHz
20 dBm
4001
7.5 cm
12 cm, 13 cm
HH
Horn Antenna

*when synthetic array length is 1.2 and 1.3 respectively.

Data was taken for two different scenes. In first scene,
metal target is placed behind plywood wall (front wall) in a
room in which back wall does not have window and in second
scene metal target is placed behind plywood wall in a room in
which back wall have window. A square metal sheet of
dimension 0.58 m in side with thickness 0.002 m is used as
target in both scenes.
In first scene the antenna mounted on the wooden scanner is
moved along a scan line with a length of 1.3 m. The
transceiver moves along the scan with a spacing of 0.05 m. i.e
for 26 positions A-scan data is collected. The distance
between front wall and target is 0.30 m, distance between
target and back wall is 0.20 m and distance between antenna
feed point and plywood wall is 2.08 m.
In second scene to demonstrate the effect of presence of
window on target detection, a location was chosen in a room
where window is present on back wall. The experimental setup
was arranged accordingly. The dimension of window was 1 m
width to 1.15 m height. Window was at a height of 0.90 m
from ground plane. The synthetic array length of 1.2 m is used
i.e., at 24 positions, A-scan data is collected at a height of 1.1
m. The distance between antenna feed point and plywood wall
is 2.4 m, distance between plywood wall and target is 0.30 m
and target and back wall is 0.20 m.
III.

Fig. 1 Flowchart showing the B-scan process.

and signal are separated in the frequency domain using filtering

by applying a standard windowing function, such as the
Hamming window [7].
Step 2. Frequency domain data to time domain: After filtering,
data is converted into time domain by using Inverse Fast
Fourier Transform (IFFT). Time domain data can be
represented as
K

s (t ) =

S( f

k ) exp( j 2f k t )

(1)

k =1

where K is maximum number of frequency points that are set

to 4001. S(fk) is the received reflected signal in frequency
domain at kth frequency and t varies from 0 to ( K 1) / BW
with step interval of 1 / BW , BW is bandwidth of the system.
Step 3. Time domain data to spatial domain:
K

S ( z) =

SIGNAL PROCESSING STEPS USED IN IMAGING

S( f

) exp( j 2f k t )

(2)

k =1

where z = ct / 2
The
maximum
distance
is
calculated
by
Z max = c( K 1) / 2 BW . In this case it is approximately 315 m
with range resolution Z = c / 2 K f where f is step size

The detail signal processing steps are given in flow chart as

shown in Fig.1.
Step 1. Filtering: SFCW radar generates the data which we
named as raw data. When the data is collected at one particular
position it is called as A-scan data. From the A-scan data, noise

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2009 International Conference on Emerging Trends in Electronic and Photonic Devices & Systems (ELECTRO-2009)

Step 8. Imaging using backprojection:

Back projection imaging algorithm [10] is widely used in
through wall imaging for image generation because of high
image quality and being compensated easily. The data obtained
after applying SVD is used as a input for the back projection
imaging algorithm.

and calculated as f = BW / K which is 0.475 GHz. Since

the maximum room dimension is small, the distance for range
profile is taken upto 5m.
Step 4. Calibration using metal sheet: In order to identify the
delay due to antenna system, calibration using metallic plate
was carried out [8]. The metallic plate is kept at a known
distance and the range profile is plotted from which delay due
to antenna system is calculated. To find out the exact distance
between antenna system and plywood wall the reflection from
antenna system which was found through calibration should
be subtracted. If the reference plate is located at a distance Rref
then the two way propagation delay tref is given by:
t ref = 2 Rref / c
(3)

IV.

For two different situations results are obtained using

proposed algorithm. From first scene, after comparing Fig. 2
and 3, it is observed that front wall reflection strength get
reduced in presence of target. Due to presence of metal target
there is no reflection from back wall as observed in Fig. 3. To
see the effect of window, data collected from second scene is
analyzed. Fig. 4 represent the range profile when target is not
present behind front wall and window is present in back wall
but is not in line of sight of antenna (i.e., at position 23)
whereas Fig. 5 represent the range profile when window is in
line of sight of antenna (at position 8) . Due to presence of
window in back wall, back wall reflection as well as multiple
reflection are absent where as when window is absent in back
wall, reflection from back wall, multiple reflection are present
which may be treated as target reflection i.e false target. Fig. 6
represents range profile when target is placed behind plywood
wall and is in front of window. Fig. 7 (a) shows image formed
by back-projection on raw data collected in second scene. It is
observed that, target is located further from its actual position.
Cross talk reflection, wall reflections are strong compared to
target reflection.

where c is the speed of light. The corrected range profile will

be
K

s( z, Rref ) =

S( f

k ) exp( j 2f k ( 2 z / c

+ 2 Rref / c))

(4)

k =1

It is found that due to delay, wall and target position are

shifted by 48 cm in down range.
Step 5. Velocity correction: For accurate position of target,
velocity correction must be applied on received signal [9]. The
delay time through walls compared to free space propagation
is determined by
tdelay = Dinwall ( rwall 1) / c

(5)

Therefore this additional time which signal is taking due to

different velocity of wave in wall than its velocity in air; must
be subtracted from original range profile given by (6)

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

) S ( f k ) exp( j 2f k (2 z / c + 2 R ref

s z final =

/ c + 2 z delay / c ))

k =1

(6)
Step 6. Normal B-scan image: A-Scan (range profile) provides
very limited amount of information, therefore the information
in more than one A-Scan has to be combined. This set of 1D
A-Scans, can thus be assembled together in a two dimensional
structure, and visualized as an image known as B-scan image.
It can be represented by (7) in which signal intensity is
varying with the distances.

Fig. 2 Range profile at position 8 when window absent in back wall of room
and target is absent.

) S ( f k ) exp( j 2f k (2 z / c + 2Rref / c + 2 z delay / c))

I x, z final =

k =1

(7)
Where x is the antenna scanning positions that lies between 1
to 30 and zfinal is the downrange locations for all antenna
positions and lies between 0 to 5m.
Step 7. Target signal estimation (SVD):
We can split normal B-scan data into three parts using SVD.
(8)
I = Mt + Mb + Mn
Where Mt, Mb and Mn are the target, background and clutter
signals, respectively. Target signal can be estimated directly
using (9) and remaining components M3 to MN contain the
clutter.

R = 2 u 2 v2T
(9)

Fig. 3 Range profile at position 8 when window is absent in back wall of room
and target is present.

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2009 International Conference on Emerging Trends in Electronic and Photonic Devices & Systems (ELECTRO-2009)

Fig. 4 Range profile at position 23 when window is absent in back wall of

room and target is absent.

(a)

Fig. 5 Range profile at position 8 when window is present in back wall of

room and target is absent.

(b)
Fig. 7 Image formed when window is present in back wall of room. (a) Raw
image, (b) Image after target signal estimation.

REFERENCES
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E. J. Baranoski, Through-wall imaging: historical perspective and

future directions, J. Franklin Inst., vol. 345, pp. 556569, Jan. 2008.
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and multiple view through the wall radar imaging, IEEE Trans. Geosci.
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Fig. 6 Range profile at position 8 when window is present in back wall of

room and target is present.

If instead of metal other material having low dielectric

constant is used as a target then reflection will be very weak.
From Fig. 7 (b) which is image after applying processing
technique we can clearly observe the metal target having high
intensity values at location of 2.529 m after correction and
which is near to ground truth value.
V.

CONCLUSION

In presence of window, reflection from back wall is

absent as expected. There will be constant reflection from
back wall in absence of window. Presence of window in
scanned area creates ambiguity in detection of target. It is
observed that the proposed algorithm can eliminate this
ambiguity and detect target. Drawback of back-projection is
that target spread in cross range direction but advantage is that
it gives accurate location and focused image of target. In
future further processing will remove spread and more
accurate detection in cross range will be possible.

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