Techniques for performing one or both of gesture recognition and biometric monitoring with an electronic device are disclosed, where the electronic device has a wireless communications capability using beamforming techniques and includes a plurality of millimeter wave antenna modules. Each module includes at least one transmit antenna and at least one receive antenna, operable in one or more frequency ranges not less than 20 GHz, the receive antenna coupled with a first branch configured to receive H-polarized signals and a second branch configured to receive V-polarized signals. Performing one or both of gesture recognition and biometric monitoring includes detecting a presence and motion of a reflective object or anatomical feature by determining a relationship between received H-polarized signals and received V-polarized signals for two or more receive antennas as a function of time.
