A method and apparatus for monitoring the condition of a living subject may be self-adjusting or adjustable to accommodate different end uses. Adjustments might be made, for example, based on characteristics of the subject to be monitored (such as species, age, health, etc.), environment (such as home or industrial setting, room size, room contents, spurious signals in the environment), and set-up conditions (such as distance between the apparatus and living subject, alignment of the apparatus with the subject, etc.).