New system uses low-power Wi-Fi signal to track moving humans — even behind walls

Dogbiscuit · Jun 28, 2013

Using WiFi to “see through walls” and track people when they’re moving could be a new feature on your next smartphone, if MIT researchers have their way, with a low-cost method of tracking relying on the wireless connectivity cooked up in their labs. The project, dubbed Wi-Vi, repurposes WiFi in a similar manner to sonar or radar, pinging out radio waves and then tracking how they’re bounced back. Since WiFi can pass through walls, so Wi-Vi can give a glimpse of what’s happening through barriers, albeit with some limitations.
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http://www.slashgear.com/wi-vi-lets-smartphones-see-through-walls-28288389/

It could also be used as a personal safety device, Katabi says: “If you are walking at night and you have the feeling that someone is following you, then you could use it to check if there is someone behind the fence or behind a corner.”

The device can also detect gestures or movements by a person standing behind a wall, such as a wave of the arm, Katabi says. This would allow it to be used as a gesture-based interface for controlling lighting or appliances within the home, such as turning off the lights in another room with a wave of the arm.

Venkat Padmanabhan, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research, says the possibility of using Wi-Vi as a gesture-based interface that does not require a line of sight between the user and the device itself is perhaps its most interesting application of all. “Such an interface could alter the face of gaming,” he says.
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http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/...wi-fi-signal-to-track-moving-humans-0628.html

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New system uses low-power Wi-Fi signal to track moving humans — even behind walls

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