# radarODE-MTL: A Multi-Task Learning Framework with Eccentric Gradient Alignment for Robust Radar-Based ECG Reconstruction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.08656 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08656/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 18 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Oct 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 18 of 18)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [SGDR: Stochastic Gradient Descent with Warm Restarts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.03983/) (2016)
- [Multi-Task Learning Using Uncertainty to Weigh Losses for Scene Geometry and Semantics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.07115/) (2017)
- [GradNorm: Gradient Normalization for Adaptive Loss Balancing in Deep Multitask Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.02257/) (2017)
- [ScanNet++: A High-Fidelity Dataset of 3D Indoor Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11417/) (2023)
- [End-to-End Multi-Task Learning with Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.10704/) (2018)
- [Conflict-Averse Gradient Descent for Multi-task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14048/) (2021)
- [Independent Component Alignment for Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.19000/) (2023)
- [Smooth Tchebycheff Scalarization for Multi-Objective Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.19078/) (2024)
- [MultiNet++: Multi-Stream Feature Aggregation and Geometric Loss Strategy for Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.08492/) (2019)
- [WaterScenes: A Multi-Task 4D Radar-Camera Fusion Dataset and Benchmarks for Autonomous Driving on Water Surfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.06505/) (2023)
- [LibMTL: A Python Library for Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.14338/) (2022)
- [Talk2Radar: Bridging Natural Language with 4D mmWave Radar for 3D Referring Expression Comprehension](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.12821/) (2024)
- [Mitigating Gradient Bias in Multi-objective Learning: A Provably Convergent Stochastic Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.12624/) (2022)
- [Quantifying Task Priority for Multi-Task Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.02996/) (2024)
- [Contactless Electrocardiogram Monitoring with Millimeter Wave Radar](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.06639/) (2021)
- [radarODE: An ODE-Embedded Deep Learning Model for Contactless ECG Reconstruction from Millimeter-Wave Radar](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.01672/) (2024)
- [GDOD: Effective Gradient Descent using Orthogonal Decomposition for Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.13465/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [From High-SNR Radar Signal to ECG: A Transfer Learning Model with Cardio-Focusing Algorithm for Scenarios with Limited Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.19358/) (2025)
- [Recover from Horcrux: A Spectrogram Augmentation Method for Cardiac Feature Monitoring from Radar Signal Components](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.19649/) (2025)
- [LifWavNet: Lifting Wavelet-based Network for Non-contact ECG Reconstruction from Radar](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.27692/) (2025)
- [Kapture: Capturing Cardiac Dynamics with Koopman-Governed Learning for Efficient Radar-Based Electrocardiogram Recovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.04955/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Millimeter-wave radar is promising to provide robust and accurate vital sign monitoring in an unobtrusive manner. However, the radar signal might be distorted in propagation by ambient noise or random body movement, ruining the subtle cardiac activities and destroying the vital sign recovery. In particular, the recovery of electrocardiogram (ECG) signal heavily relies on the deep-learning model and is sensitive to noise. Therefore, this work creatively deconstructs the radar-based ECG recovery into three individual tasks and proposes a multi-task learning (MTL) framework, radarODE-MTL, to increase the robustness against consistent and abrupt noises. In addition, to alleviate the potential conflicts in optimizing individual tasks, a novel multi-task optimization strategy, eccentric gradient alignment (EGA), is proposed to dynamically trim the task-specific gradients based on task difficulties in orthogonal space. The proposed radarODE-MTL with EGA is evaluated on the public dataset with prominent improvements in accuracy, and the performance remains consistent under noises. The experimental results indicate that radarODE-MTL could reconstruct accurate ECG signals robustly from radar signals and imply the application prospect in real-life situations. The code is available at: http://github.com/ZYY0844/radarODE-MTL.