A
group of researchers led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
professor Dina Katabi has developed software that uses variations in
radio signals to recognize human silhouettes through walls and track
their movements.
Researchers
say the technology will be able to help health care providers and
families keep closer tabs on toddlers and the elderly, and it could be a
new strategic tool for law enforcement and the military.
"Think of it just like cameras, except that it's not a
camera," said Fadel Adib, a researcher on the MIT team developing the
device.
"It's a sensor that can monitor people and allow you to control devices just by pointing at them," he said.
Work
began in 2012 to determine how wireless signals could be used to "see"
what's happening in another room, said Katabi, who directs the MIT
Wireless Center.
"At
first we were just interested ... can you at all use wireless signals
to detect what's happening in occluded spaces, behind a wall, couch,
something like that," Katabi said.
"It
turned out that we were able to detect that. And when we figured out we
could detect that, we started asking more advanced questions: Could we
use it to detect exactly how people are moving in a space if they are
behind a wall?"
The
device displays the signal on a screen, where the person's movements
can be tracked in real time. It depicts the target as a red dot moving
around the room, occupying a chair and speeding up or slowing down.
The wireless
signals used to track a person's motions also can measure the
individual's breathing and heart rate — and potentially identify the
person based on the shape of his or her skeleton, said researcher Zach
Kabelac.
"The
person won't be wearing anything on them, and the person it's tracking
doesn't even need to know the device is there," Kabelac said.
"If something
unfortunate happens to them, like a fall, the device will contact the
caregiver that they chose to alert" by generating a text message or an
email, he added.
That
makes health care applications especially interesting, Katabi said. But
she also sees military and law enforcement possibilities — particularly
in hostage situations.
"You
don't want to send the police inside without knowing where the people
are standing or where the hostages are," she said. "If there is someone
with a gun, where they are standing?"
A
company set up to market the technology, now dubbed Emerald, will spin
out of the MIT lab next year, with a goal of marketing the device early
in 2017, and it's expected to sell for $250-$300, Adib said. The team is
working to make the device smaller and to develop an interface that
will let users configure it through a smartphone app, Katabi added.
The technology
raises questions about privacy rights and intrusion, and Adib said the
team gave serious thought to those implications.
"The
user interface will be friendly for setting it up and using it at home,
but it will be very hard to use it to track someone just by pointing it
at their wall," he said.
"Think
of it this way: Your cellphone already has wireless signals that can
traverse walls, but how many people can use these signals to actually
see through walls? The reason people can't do that is that the user
interface does not expose this information."
By: Scott Eisen (Associated Press).
Contributor: William J. Kole (Boston).
Review: Emerging Market Formulations & Research Unit; Flagship Records.
For The #FacebookTeam