X-Ray Vison?

[M.D. Holloway]

We could do this now with our cell phones and the right app?

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.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/x-ray-vision-technology-making-060439552.html

[911boost]

Old news, Batman did this in the Dark Knight.

[vash]

i'd be happy if it could find rebar in concrete that needs drilling.

[ossiblue]

From the article, the concept sounds much like radar/sonar in that the target is a passive "reflector" or, the cell signal could be absorbed by a living thing in such a way that it is identifiable. If I understood the text correctly, cell phones already are capable of this type of tracking but lack the "interface" to display it--I take that to mean the inability to read the rebounding/absorbed signal and then display it in any meaningful way.

My first thoughts as I was reading was the invasion of privacy factor, be it from the government or private sources. Personally, I wouldn't want anyone to be able to track my movements behind closed doors and within my own home. Once in public, all bets are off as already one needs to assume that they are constantly under photographic surveillance. Moving that ability to watch your movements inside your own home by anyone with the "app" is more than uncomfortable, IMO.

And does anyone really believe that, “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,” will not be easily manipulated to do exactly that when, in fact, the device is already touted as helping government and police "see" through walls from the outside?

Seems to me, such a device would be a boon to the baddies as well. What potential burglar wouldn't like to know if the house or building he was about to hit was unoccupied or, at least, where in the building the occupants were?

This could be another genie escaping from the bottle.

[URY914]

Will it help my wife find her cell phone?

[Por_sha911]

[flatbutt]

MIT does some very cool stuff. I met with a prof there a couple of years who developed a bracelet that measured skin conductance. She did a trial that showed changes in conductance could foreshadow medical events like an epileptic seizure. Way cool.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by vash

i'd be happy if it could find rebar in concrete that needs drilling.

That's easy! Just get out the most expensive bit you've got and start drilling. You will hit rebar in that spot every time!

[DonDavis]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

That's easy! Just get out the most expensive bit you've got and start drilling. You will hit rebar in that spot every time!

The goal is to avoid rebar. That's why he wants to know where it is.