It isn't exactly Superman-like X-ray vision, but cheap, low-power Wi-Fi technology is gaining more attention as a remote sensing tool, according to Cnet website.
Do you really wish you had X-ray vision? Sure, it would be fun to see what your neighbors are doing behind those walls -- until you see something you wish you hadn't.
Regardless, researchers at MIT have developed a sensing technology that uses low-power Wi-Fi to detect moving people. It follows other wall-penetrating sensor tech using radar and heavy equipment.
The Wi-Vi system by Dina Katabi and Fadel Adib sends out a low-power Wi-Fi signal and tracks its reflections to sense people moving around, even if they're in closed rooms or behind walls.
Part of a Wi-Fi signal transmitted at a wall will penetrate it and reflect off people on the other side. The MIT system ignores all the other reflects, such as from objects, to focus on those from moving people only. It can determine the number of moving people in the room and their relative locations.
The system sends out two nearly identical signals, but one is the inverse of the other, and thus they cancel each other out.
"So, if the person moves behind the wall, all reflections from static objects are cancelled out, and the only thing registered by the device is the moving human," Adib, a graduate student in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was quoted as saying in a release.
The Wi-Vi receiver uses changes in the signal reflection time to calculate where a moving person is behind a wall. It can also detect gestures such as arm waving and could be used to control home lighting or appliances in another room. It could also let people communicate with the outside using hand signals alone.
British researchers have also been investigating how to use Wi-Fi for surveillance and urban warfare, but the MIT system could be used in applications such as search and rescue, law enforcement, or personal security.
"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," said Katabi, a professor in the department.
Or the NSA could use it to see how badly you dance in front of your mirror.
The research (PDF) will be shown at the Sigcomm conference in Hong Kong in August. Check out a brief demo in the vid below.
Dina Katabi, a 42-year-old professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is one of this year's24 recipients of the MacArthur Fellow, commonly known as the "Genius Awards."
The award comes with $625,000 (an increase from last year's $500,000), paid over five years.
Katabi was running late for class when she got the life-changing phone call. "I thought it was a prank," she said. The man on the other end of line "gave me a number and asked me to call the foundation."
That's when she knew — wow, this is real.
Katabi was allowed to tell one person about her accomplishment before the official announcement. She told her boyfriend, who also works at MIT.
Katabi was born in Syria. She came to the United States for graduate school in 1999 to study computer science at MIT, where she has taught since 2003.
Most of her work centers on making wireless networks and devices more efficient and secure to use. Another aspect is coming up with new uses for Wi-Fi and cellular networks. Currently she is exploring how to use Wi-Fi radio signals to track people through walls, similar to X-ray vision. The signals traverse through walls and obstacles and reflect off a human body.
"We don't have a Superman here yet," said Katabi. "We can't see the silhouette of a person. We see the person like a blob, which we can use to trace how the person is moving behind a wall."
This can be done without cooperation or knowledge from the person on the other side of the obstacle. That may sound nefarious, but it could be used by firefighters to find victims inside a burning building or locate trapped hostages, Kabati explains.
She still doesn't know how she is going to spend the money.
Ideally she would like to use the extra cash to find an activity that would "impact her personal life" but also her work "in a positive way," since she finds the two hard to separate.
"My work and my life are so much intertwined," she said. "I spend my whole day in the office. Most of my friends in my life and my work are all together."
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