CMS-TM1 Research Concept | Human-Canine Physiological Sensing

Non-Optical Physiological Monitoring for Human-Canine Operational Care

Complex Media Sensing develops low-SWaP physiological sensing architectures for field environments where conventional optical and contact-based monitoring is degraded by fur, motion, moisture, variable anatomy, and unstable sensor contact.

The current research program investigates coherent radar, inertial context, and multimodal confidence scoring for future interoperable monitoring form factors supporting both military working dogs and human warfighters.

Can a fieldable wearable system extract useful physiological status signals from fur-covered, moving subjects without relying on optical or contact-based sensing?

Research objective: characterize feasibility boundaries for non-optical physiological micro-motion sensing through complex biological media using Phase I in vitro and in-silico validation methods.

View BARK Alignment View Technical Approach Capability Statement

CMS-TM1 concept60 GHz pulsed coherent radarIMU contextEdge DSPConfidence scoringHuman-canine form factorsPatent-pending systems

Reviewer Summary

CMS-TM1 in One Pass

CMS-TM1 is a research-stage non-optical physiological status monitoring concept for military working dogs and human warfighters. The system uses a shared low-SWaP sensing pod, coherent radar, IMU context, edge DSP, and confidence scoring to support field triage and physiological status monitoring where optical and contact-based sensors are degraded by fur, motion, moisture, clothing, and unstable contact.

Phase I will not involve human or animal subjects. Feasibility will be evaluated through mechanical phantoms, synthetic fur/media layers, motion artifact injection, and in-silico physiological displacement models. The primary Phase I endpoint is respiration-related motion extraction and signal-quality confidence scoring. Cardiac-band micro-motion is treated as a secondary feasibility characterization endpoint.

Phase I validation: in vitro and in silico only. No human or animal subjects are proposed for Phase I.

BARK-Relevant Research Direction

Alignment With Human-Canine Medical Product Priorities

SBIR Alignment: DARPA BARK Open Topic, DPA26BZ01-NP001

DARPA BARK seeks medical technologies that are interoperable and compatible across humans and dogs, including sensors and form factors that support physiological status monitoring or triage. CMS addresses this need by developing a shared sensing architecture that can adapt across canine and human wearable form factors.

The public site is structured as a technical appendix for the white paper: proposed concept, concept of employment, path to market, and scalability. It reinforces the product logic without carrying proposal-only details or unsupported performance claims. This page is intended as a public technical overview supporting, but not replacing, the formal SBIR white paper and proposal materials.

Proposed concept

A modular non-optical physiological sensing pod and software stack for canine and human field configurations.

Concept of employment

Handler, medic, and clinician workflows for baseline, mission monitoring, recovery, triage handoff, and post-event review.

Path to market

Separate animal-only and human-use regulatory planning, COTS comparison, and Phase II validation strategy.

Scalability

Reusable sensing hardware, software-defined profiles, familiar wearable form factors, and shared telemetry workflows.

BARK Alignment Matrix

CMS-TM1 mapped to proposal-review priorities without expanding public performance claims.

Proposed concept

Research-stage CMS-TM1 module for non-optical physiological status sensing.

Concept of employment

Handler, medic, veterinarian, and clinical handoff workflows.

Path to market

Animal-only, human-use, and cross-species regulatory paths separated by intended use.

Scalability

Shared low-SWaP electronics, firmware, telemetry, and species-specific mounting.

Human/canine interoperability

One sensing architecture configurable for canine and human operational care.

Reduced kit burden

Common training, confidence scoring, and dashboard workflow across team members.

Operational Problem

Physiological Status Monitoring Breaks Down When the Medium Gets Complex

The initial target is not consumer pet wellness. The target is fieldable physiological status monitoring for working canine teams and human operators where handlers, medics, or clinicians need low-burden insight into stability, degradation, recovery, and triage needs.

CMS addresses the sensing problem created by fur-covered subjects, clothing, motion, moisture, heat, and operational clutter. These conditions can make conventional optical and contact-based approaches difficult to use continuously in field deployments.

Fur, clothing, and media

Hair, fabric, bandages, moisture, and porous dielectric layers can weaken coupling, change propagation, and reduce usable physiological signal.

Motion-rich operation

Walking, panting, posture changes, handler motion, vibration, and clutter can overlap respiratory and cardiac-band signals.

Separate human and canine kit

Operational teams often face separate products, different training burdens, and anatomy-specific deployment constraints.

Why Non-Optical Sensing

Rugged Collar and Harness Geometry Is Not a Clinical Pulse-Ox Site

Conventional photoplethysmography and pulse oximetry rely on optical coupling to perfused tissue. In rugged collar-mounted canine deployments, intact fur, coat density, pigmentation, motion, contact pressure, and local perfusion variability can prevent stable waveform acquisition.

CMS is not attempting to replace clinical pulse oximetry. The research addresses a different operational problem: continuous physiological status monitoring in fur-covered, mobile, field-deployed subjects where optical sensing assumptions are not consistently satisfied.

Factor	Implication
Fur and coat variability	Intact fur can interfere with stable optical coupling, repeatable contact pressure, and waveform quality in collar or harness geometries.
Motion and field handling	Walking, panting, brushing, vibration, and posture changes can create artifacts that look physiological unless measurement quality is scored.
Deployment site constraints	Veterinary pulse oximetry can work at appropriate sites, but those sites are not the same as a rugged collar or harness form factor.
Research response	CMS focuses on coherent radar, inertial context, and confidence scoring for conditions where optical or electrode assumptions degrade.

Why Now

Compact Radar and Edge DSP Make the Question Testable

Recent advances in compact coherent radar, low-power embedded processors, edge DSP, and wearable telemetry make it possible to evaluate non-optical physiological status monitoring in form factors that were previously impractical. CMS combines these components with confidence-scored signal interpretation and cross-species mounting concepts to address a field-monitoring problem not solved by conventional optical or contact-based devices.

Proposed Concept

CMS-TM1 Tactical Physiological Monitoring Module

CMS-TM1 is a research-stage concept for a modular physiological sensing pod and software stack. The same core sensing engine can be adapted to canine collar or harness configurations and human-worn strap, vest, or equipment-mounted configurations.

The physical interface changes by anatomy. The sensing, inference, telemetry, confidence-scoring, and alert workflow architecture remains common, directly supporting cross-species interoperability.

Intended Product Direction

Interoperable Operational Care Module

The intended product direction is an interoperable physiological status monitoring module that can be configured for canine and human operational care. The module is not a consumer pet tracker. It is a research-stage medical-product concept designed to support physiological status assessment, triage workflows, recovery monitoring, and handoff to veterinary or medical personnel.

Same core sensor pod for canine collar or harness concepts and human chest, strap, vest, or equipment-mounted concepts
Same firmware, signal-processing, telemetry, and confidence-scoring architecture
Species-specific mounting, thresholds, validation protocols, and labeling
Designed to reduce separate human and canine monitoring kit burden rather than add a standalone pet tracker

Same CMS sensor pod adapted to canine and human mounting concepts with shared DSP, confidence scoring, telemetry, and dashboard workflow. — cross_species_sensing_architectureCanine and human form-factor concepts using the same core sensor pod and software stack.

Current Practice and Technical Gap

COTS Options Solve Parts of the Problem, Not the Shared Field Workflow

Existing veterinary monitoring systems provide useful data when clinical placement, animal restraint, or skin/electrode contact is available. Tactical canine and human monitoring present a different problem: operation under motion, moisture, heat, fur, clothing, and kit constraints while reducing human/canine duplication.

Existing Approach	Current Strength	Field Constraint	CMS Research Response
Human PPG wearables	Low cost and mature in many consumer and clinical contexts	Optical coupling assumptions are fragile in collar-mounted, fur-covered, motion-rich deployment.	Use non-optical micro-motion sensing with explicit confidence scoring.
Veterinary pulse oximetry	Clinically familiar for spot checks at appropriate sites	Often depends on tongue, mucosal tissue, pinna, tail base, or other feasible optical/contact sites.	Do not claim SpO2; address continuous field monitoring where those sites are impractical.
ECG harnesses	Strong reference when electrodes maintain skin contact	Fur, moisture, fit, electrode displacement, and motion complicate tactical continuous use.	Use ECG as a future reference comparator, not the default operational sensor.
Rectal or core temperature checks	Useful clinical or handler-driven assessment	Episodic, invasive, and not a continuous low-burden field trend.	Support physiological trend and heat-strain workflow research without claiming core temperature measurement.
Pet GPS and activity trackers	Mature location and activity products	Generally not cross-species medical-product-oriented physiological monitors.	Focus on physiological extraction, confidence, and human-canine operational telemetry.
CMS research approach	Non-optical, motion-aware, edge-deployable architecture	Technical risk remains in fur/media attenuation, motion artifacts, and form-factor fit.	Use Phase I to quantify signal boundaries, not to overstate field performance.

This is not a claim that PPG or pulse oximetry is impossible in veterinary medicine. Those tools are useful when placed at appropriate sites with adequate optical coupling and perfusion. CMS is addressing the narrower field problem of continuous, fur-covered, motion-rich deployment.

Comparison matrix for PPG, pulse oximetry, ECG, rectal temperature, pet activity trackers, veterinary monitors, and CMS. — current_practice_gap_mapComparison of current approaches against fur compatibility, motion resilience, cross-species interoperability, and field deployment.

Technology Stack

Confidence-Scored Sensing Instead of Single-Sensor Status Claims

The CMS architecture is designed around physiological feature extraction and confidence scoring. Radar-derived micro-motion features are interpreted alongside inertial and environmental context to determine whether a measurement window is valid, degraded, or unsuitable for decision support.

Inputs include radar, IMU, temperature, environment, and context; processing includes phase extraction, motion compensation, feature extraction, and confidence scoring. — cms_sensing_stackThe system reports confidence-scored physiological status instead of unsupported universal physiological-status claims.

Coherent radar, inertial, and environmental acquisition

Range-bin I/Q capture and phase extraction

Respiration-band feature extraction as the primary Phase I endpoint

Cardiac-band micro-motion characterization as a secondary endpoint

IMU-assisted motion gating and measurement-window quality assessment

Confidence-scored status output, alert workflow, and telemetry

Public claims exclude diagnosis, treatment, disease prediction, FDA clearance, clinical-grade accuracy, SpO2 measurement by radar, blood pressure measurement, and core body temperature measurement unless separately validated and cleared for the final intended use.

Hypothesis

Boundary Mapping Is the Phase I Product

CMS hypothesizes that useful physiological status signals can be extracted from coherent radar returns through complex biological media when phase and amplitude features are interpreted jointly with inertial context, signal-quality metrics, and adaptive confidence scoring.

The primary Phase I question is not whether every physiological output can be measured under all conditions. The primary question is whether the system can determine when respiratory-band physiological motion is recoverable, when signal quality is insufficient, and which media or motion conditions define the feasibility boundary.

Question	Phase I Evidence Target
Recoverable signal	Can respiratory-band physiological motion be separated from media, clutter, and motion artifacts under controlled conditions?
Confidence boundary	Can the system determine when a measurement window is valid, degraded, or unsuitable for operational interpretation?
Secondary endpoint	Can cardiac-band micro-motion be characterized without making it the primary Phase I gate?
Useful negative result	Can thick, wet, or highly mobile media limits be quantified to define the operational envelope or fallback sensing modes?

Hypothesis Stress Test

What Would Falsify the Hypothesis

The Phase I hypothesis would be weakened or falsified if bench testing shows that any of the core feasibility assumptions fail under controlled, repeatable conditions.

Respiratory-band displacement cannot be recovered through realistic fur/media analogs under controlled stationary conditions.
Motion artifacts cannot be reliably detected or gated using IMU and radar confidence features.
Wet or dense media cause signal degradation that prevents useful confidence-scored operation across the intended deployment envelope.
The shared canine/human sensor architecture requires species-specific hardware changes so substantial that interoperability is no longer practical.

Negative findings will still be valuable because they define the boundary conditions for non-optical physiological sensing in complex biological media.

Concept of Employment

One Workflow, Species-Specific Mounting

A handler or medic attaches the CMS sensor pod to a canine harness/collar or human chest/strap configuration before deployment. The system establishes a baseline, monitors valid physiological windows during operation, flags degraded measurement conditions, and transmits confidence-scored status to a local device or operational dashboard.

Intended value is rapid awareness of whether a canine or human team member is stable, physiologically stressed, recovering, or requires further assessment. CMS is designed to complement, not replace, clinician judgment or established veterinary and medical procedures.

Timeline showing pre-mission baseline, active operation, heat and rest recovery, triage handoff, and post-mission physiological summary. — concept_of_employment_timelineOperational timeline for canine and human users sharing the same dashboard workflow.

Operational Data Handling

Local-First Telemetry for Field Review

CMS-TM1 is intended to support local-first operation, confidence-scored event reporting, and configurable telemetry. Future prototypes should address encrypted transmission, limited-data operation, offline logging, and role-based access for handlers, medics, veterinarians, and command or clinical review workflows.

Phase I Validation

In Vitro and In Silico First

Phase I feasibility is structured around bench and simulation methods. No human subject research or animal subject research is proposed for Phase I.

Feasibility will be evaluated using mechanical motion phantoms, controlled fur and media analog layers, moisture and orientation variation, motion artifact injection, and simulated canine and human respiratory and cardiac-band displacement profiles.

Phase I validation: in vitro and in silico only. No human or animal subjects are proposed for Phase I.

Endpoint	Phase I Scope
Primary	Respiration-related motion extraction and confidence-scored physiological status under media and motion conditions.
Secondary	Cardiac-band micro-motion feasibility characterization with explicit boundary conditions.
Exploratory	Heat-strain and recovery workflow support through multimodal trend interpretation, not diagnosis.
Excluded	Human or animal subject research, diagnostic claims, SpO2 measurement by radar, and FDA clearance claims.

Phase I Success Metrics

Detect simulated respiratory displacement across defined synthetic fur/media layers with target respiratory-rate error <= +/-2 breaths/min under controlled stationary conditions.
Classify measurement windows as valid, degraded, or invalid using radar/IMU confidence features with target classification accuracy >= 85% on bench-generated artifact datasets.
Quantify signal attenuation and confidence degradation across dry, damp, and wet synthetic fur/media conditions.
Demonstrate shared firmware and telemetry workflow across representative canine and human mounting concepts.
Produce go/no-go boundary maps identifying where non-optical sensing is feasible, degraded, or unsuitable.

Month 1

Build bench testbed

Mechanical phantom, reference displacement instrument, fur/media layers, and data-capture workflow.

Month 2

Establish baseline signal model

No-fur and thin-media respiratory displacement detection with reference motion instrumentation.

Month 3

Characterize fur/media boundaries

Signal quality versus layer thickness, orientation, moisture, and dielectric proxy conditions.

Month 4

Stress motion artifacts

IMU-gated confidence scoring, degraded-window detection, and false-positive reduction analysis.

Month 5

Demonstrate form-factor prototype path

Same sensor pod represented in canine and human mounting concepts with shared telemetry flow.

Month 6

Deliver feasibility report

Quantitative go/no-go metrics, COTS comparison, technical risks, and Phase II prototype plan.

Phase I Testbed Figure

Bench validation path for evaluating feasibility without human or animal subjects.

Coherent radar sensor

Synthetic fur/media layer

Mechanical displacement phantom

Reference motion sensor

DSP and confidence pipeline

Mechanical motion phantom, fur and media analog stack, mmWave radar sensor, reference displacement sensor, IMU motion artifact fixture, and data capture computer. — phase_i_benchtop_validation_setupPhase I establishes quantitative signal boundaries before any future live validation.

Heilmeier Discipline

Known Risks and Concrete Exams

The program is framed around technical risk reduction rather than certainty. The Phase I exams are designed to show where the approach works, where it degrades, and what must be solved before Phase II prototype and preclinical or operational validation.

Risk	Phase I Exam
Fur and media attenuation	Layered analog sweeps with signal quality and boundary reporting.
Motion artifacts	Motion injection fixture plus IMU confidence-gating metrics.
Cardiac-band weakness	Secondary feasibility endpoint with no universal heart-rate claim.
Fit across anatomies	Shared pod with species-specific mounts and validation plans.
Regulatory pathway uncertainty	Animal-device and human-device pathway assessment before stronger claims.

IP and Execution Capability

Evidence-Based Capability Without Overclaiming

CMS is supported by patent-pending technology areas and existing embedded sensing work. Public language stays at the technology-area level and does not disclose confidential claim language or imply completed clinical validation.

Non-optical physiological status monitoring

Patent-pending technology areas support radar, inertial, environmental, and contextual sensing for physiological status monitoring research.

Motion-compensated inference

Patent-pending methods address artifact rejection, measurement-window confidence, and field-deployed signal interpretation.

Wearable system architectures

Patent-pending architectures support low-SWaP embedded sensing, local inference, and event-driven telemetry workflows.

Execution Area	Public-Safe Support
60 GHz coherent radar integration	Existing local firmware and hardware artifacts include A121 radar integration and bench-test support.
Signal processing	Existing implementation evidence covers I/Q handling, phase/displacement processing, FFT/IIR logic, and fusion components.
Embedded and low power systems	Nordic, Zephyr, BLE, LTE-M/GNSS, battery, and event-driven telemetry work exists across the broader codebase.
App and cloud workflow	Mobile, backend, dashboard, alert, and telemetry work exists, with product claims kept research-stage here.
Advisory network	CMS is building support across veterinary, operational canine, embedded sensing, and regulatory strategy disciplines.

CMS is actively building an advisory network across veterinary medicine, operational canine handling, embedded sensing, and medical device regulatory strategy. No advisor, partner, DoD relationship, IRB, IACUC, or agency endorsement is claimed here unless separately confirmed.

Team & Execution

Embedded Systems Execution With External Advisor Path

Complex Media Sensing is led by Lutz Innovations LLC, building on embedded radar, signal-processing, telemetry, mobile, and wearable-system development work. The program is designed to combine internal embedded systems capability with external veterinary, operational canine, regulatory, and defense-transition advisors as appropriate for Phase I and Phase II development.

Path to Market

Regulatory and Market Access Planning

CMS is developing the proposed system as a research-stage physiological status monitoring technology. For animal-only uses, FDA has oversight over animal devices but does not require 510(k), PMA, or pre-market approval for devices intended solely for animal use. CMS would still be responsible for safety, effectiveness, and proper labeling.

For human-use or cross-species medical product claims, CMS anticipates early regulatory classification work based on final intended use, technological characteristics, risk profile, and predicate availability.

CMS distinguishes between animal-only, human-use, and cross-species medical-product claims. Any future human-use or diagnostic claims would require appropriate regulatory strategy, validation, and clearance or authorization before deployment.

Animal-only applications: evaluate safety, effectiveness, labeling, adverse-event handling, and veterinary workflow needs.
Human-use or cross-species medical claims: evaluate FDA classification, predicate landscape, 513(g), De Novo, 510(k), or other pathway as appropriate.
Dual-use markets: DoD, military working dogs, civilian working dogs, veterinary monitoring, search and rescue, law enforcement K9, and selected human monitoring applications.
Phase II path: prototype fabrication, approved preclinical or operational user testing, regulatory engagement, and quantified comparison to COTS options.

Scalability

Designed for Reuse Across DoD and Dual-Use Markets

The architecture is designed around low-SWaP embedded components, reusable sensing hardware, configurable mounting accessories, and software-defined species profiles. The objective is a deployable product path that can scale across DoD, veterinary, working dog, and selected human monitoring markets without requiring a separate hardware platform for each patient class.

Low-SWaP embedded components

Reusable sensing hardware

Configurable canine and human mounts

Software-defined species profiles

Shared telemetry and dashboard workflow

Limited training burden for handlers, medics, and clinicians

Manufacturable electronics and field-replaceable accessories

Maintenance and storage planning against COTS alternatives

Roadmap showing Phase I in vitro and in silico feasibility, Phase II prototype and validation, and Phase III dual-use deployment. — phase_i_phase_ii_phase_iii_roadmapRoadmap from feasibility to prototype validation to dual-use transition.

Claim Discipline

What CMS Is Not Claiming

Public language is intentionally limited to a focused Phase I research objective: characterize whether non-optical, motion-aware physiological sensing can extract useful status signals through complex biological media and define feasibility boundaries for future prototype development.

Diagnosis of disease

Replacement of ECG or clinical pulse oximetry

FDA-cleared human medical use

Validated cardiac measurement through all fur types

Reliable sensing during all motion conditions

Clinical performance in live canine or human populations

Capability Statement

Public Technical Appendix for SBIR Review

The capability statement summarizes the objective, operational gap, proposed product, Phase I approach, differentiator, transition path, and contact surface in a reviewer-friendly format.

Open Capability Statement

Complex Media Sensing is a research initiative of Lutz Innovations LLC.

Patent-pending technologies. Research-stage systems. Not for diagnostic use.

SBIR / research inquiries are routed through the CMS contact workflow.