A half‐space electromagnetic model of human skin over the band 30–300 GHz was constructed and used to model radiometric emissivity. The model showed that the radiometric emissivity rose from 0.4 to 0.8 over this band, with emission being localized to a layer approximately one millimeter deep in the skin. Simulations of skin with differing water contents associated with psoriasis, eczema, malignancy, and thermal burn wounds indicated radiometry could be used as a non‐contact technique to detect and monitor these conditions. The skin emissivity of a sample of 30 healthy volunteers, measured using a 95 GHz radiometer, was found to range from 0.2 to 0.7, and the experimental measurement uncertainty was ±0.002. Men on average were found to have an emissivity 0.046 higher than those of women, a measurement consistent with men having thicker skin than women. The regions of outer wrist and dorsal forearm, where skin is thicker, had emissivities 0.06–0.08 higher than the inner wrist and volar forearms where skin is generally thinner. Recommendations are made to develop a more sophisticated model of the skin and to collect larger data sets to obtain a deeper understanding of the signatures of human skin in the millimeter wave band. Bioelectromagnetics. 38:559–569, 2017. © 2017 The Authors. Bioelectromagnetics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Abstract-Due to changes in global security requirements attention is turning to new means by which anomalies on the human body might be identified. For security screening systems operating in the millimeter wave band anomalies can be identified by measuring the emissivities of subjects. As the interaction of millimeter waves with the human body is only a fraction of a millimeter into the skin and clothing has a small, but known effect, precise measurement of the emission and reflection of this radiation will allow comparisons with the norm for that region of the body and person category. A technique to measure the human skin emissivity in vivo over the frequency band 80 GHz to 100 GHz is developed and described. The mean emissivity values of the skin of a sample of 60 healthy participants (36 males and 24 females) measured using a 90 GHz calibrated radiometer were found to range from 0.17±0.005 to 0.68±0.005. The lower values of emissivity are a result of measuring particularly thin skin on the inner wrist, volar side of the forearm, and back of hand, whereas higher values of emissivity are results of measuring thick skin on the outer wrist, dorsal surface of the forearm, and palm of hand. The mean differences in the emissivity between Asian and European male participants were calculated to be in the range of 0.04 to 0.11 over all measurement locations. Experimental measurements of the emissivity for male and female participants having normal and high body mass index indicate that the mean differences in the emissivity are in the range of 0.05 to 0.15 for all measurement locations. These results show the quantitative variations in the skin emissivity between locations, gender, and individuals. The mean differences in the emissivity values between dry and wet skin on the palm of hand and back of hand regions were found to be 0.143 and 0.066 respectively. These results confirm that radiometry can, as a non-contact method, identify surfaces attached to the human skin in tens of seconds. These results indicate a route to machine anomaly detection that may increase the through-put speed, the detection probabilities and reduce the false alarm rates in security screening portals.

-A free wave, transmission only technique for the determination of complex permittivity in the mm wave band 14 -40 GHz of planar samples of textiles is presented.W ith this method accurate alignment of source and detector horns is not required and time gating methods to reduce or remove standing wave interference between horns is replaced by a data smoothing process. Transmittance measurements are taken at discrete angles of incidence ( 0 to 65 degrees) for TE ( s) polarised mm waves and the data is then smoothed to remove standing wave interference effects between transmitter and receiver horns. The resulting data is fitted to a mathematical model of an infinite planar sheet of isotropic complex permittivity in air and the permittivity parameters that best fit the data to the model are presented. The textiles investigated here are denim ( cotton) and cow leather ( two colours, Red and Beige). This method is shown to be simple to set up, easy to use and fast when compared with other methods such as free wave reflectance and transmittance or FabryPerot cavity and gives results which are accurate enough for most practical applications.Significant difference in the absorption of mm-wave power between the two leather samples is observed. This can be explained by the different chemical composition of the two leather samples, investigated using a Scanning Electron Microscope with Electron Dispersive Spectrometry, which is almost certainly a result of the colouring process employed.

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A technique to measure the human skin emissivity in vivo is described for the frequency band 80-100 GHz. Emissivity measurements were performed on 60 participants, 35 males and 25 females, with ages ranging from 20 to 60 years. Results show that the emissivity of males is higher than that of females. The study suggests a trend in the emissivities with age and gender, which might be due to variations of skin thickness and water content. As non-contact screening is desirable in medical applications, passive millimeter-wave sensing could be a means of achieving this in the diagnosis of skin disease or damage, where the disease/damage alters the water content or the skin thickness.

This paper describes how information about the electromagnetic structure of targets can be obtained from direct detection radar techniques, where the relative phase of the transmitted and received signals is not measured. A comparison is made between the resolved structure of a simple test target from an ultra wide band, pulse synthesis direct detection radar system at 14-40 GHz and an equivalent heterodyne radar receiver where phase information is recorded. The test targets employed are wax sheet of thickness 20 mm and 80 mm which are illuminated alone and in contact with the human body. A vector network analyser is used as the radar system. The simplicity of constructing ultra wide band direct detection radar systems combined with their cost makes the use of such radar systems appealing for applications such as concealed threat detection and non-destructive testing, where absolute range to the target, if required, can be determined by other methods.

An active technique for the standoff detection and identification of concealed conducting items such as handguns and knives is presented. This technique entails illuminating an object with wide range stepped millimetre wave radiation and inducing a local electromagnetic field comprised of a superposition of modes. The coupling to these modes from the illuminating and scattered fields is, in general, frequency dependent and this forms the basis for the detection and identification of conducting items. The object needs to be fully illuminated if a full spectrum of modes and therefore a full frequency response are to be excited and collected. The scattered EM power is measured at "stand off" distance of several metres as the illuminating field is frequency swept and patterns in frequency response characteristic to the target item being sought are looked for. This system relies on contributions from the aspect independent late time responses employed by Baum 1 together with aspect independent information derived specifically from gun barrels and polarisation from scattering effects. This technique is suitable for a deployable gun and concealed weapons detection system and does not rely on imaging techniques for determining the presence of a gun. Experimental sets of responses from typical metal or partially conducting objects such as keys, mobile phones and concealed handguns are presented at a range of frequencies.