Active RIS-Assisted MIMO System for Vital Signs Extraction: ISAC Modeling, Deep Learning, and Prototype Measurements

We present the RIS-VSign system, an active reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) framework for vital signs extraction under an integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) model. The system consists of two stages: the phase selector of RIS and the extraction of respiration rate. To mitigate synchronization-induced common phase drifts, the difference of Möbius transformation (DMT) is integrated into the deep learning framework, named DMTNet, to jointly configure multiple active RIS elements. Notably, the training data are generated in simulation without collecting real-world measurements, and the resulting phase selector is validated experimentally. For sensing, multi-antenna measurements are fused by the DC-offset calibration and the DeepMining-MMV processing with CA-CFAR detection and Newton's refinements. Prototype experiments indicate that active RIS deployment improves respiration detectability while simultaneously enabling higher-order modulation; without RIS, respiration detection is unreliable and only lower-order modulation is supported.