Potentials of Millimeter-Wave Radar Imaging for Non-Invasive Assessment of the Human Spine

Spine-related diseases such as scoliosis can be diagnosed with X-ray. As a less harmful alternative, optical scanning has been established for spine posture estimation. From a scan of the human’s back topology, characteristic points can be extracted to derive the spine’s posture. While this modality is less expensive and harmful than X-ray, it comes with the disadvantage that the patient has to undress, which takes time and may cause discomfort. Radar imaging can be an alternative that can capture the back’s topology without the necessity to undress. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate the potentials of millimeter-wave radar imaging to capture the surface topology of the back for spine posture estimation. We will present measurement results with a mannequin and compare the results to measurements with an optical reference system.