The idea of seeing through walls has been with us for many years . It is thanks to WiFi , which allows people and movements to be detected using the variations of the signals when colliding with objects and bodies. But what some time ago was a project with very specific conditions, thanks to improvements in WiFi it is now possible to have a very precise representation . And also very cheap.
This is what some researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have shown with their ‘ DensePose ‘ tool. The work has been published on arXiv and tells all the details of how they use WiFi to know exactly where people are on the other side of the room. And not just its location, practically its outline.
To «see people» you don’t need any LiDAR or any weird sensor. In this case they used their WiFi router , a TP-Link Archer A7 AC1750. During the experiment they were distributed around the room and through a series of algorithms they analyzed the signals. With this they were able to see a very exhaustive representation of these people, with structures that moved like people. In short, almost an image but without any type of camera.
This is precisely where the advantage of this mechanism lies. The researchers state that it is an alternative system to image capture. No light required, just WiFi.
It is true that it is recognised that the reliability is not as exact as that of a camera, since there are movements or objects that can «confuse» the signal. But generally, as long as there are fewer than three people in the room, they haven’t encountered much trouble .
More private than camera surveillance
DensePose works in total darkness, but its main advantage is its great difference compared to cameras. Here only shapes are detected . Precise enough to know someone is there and more or less what they’re doing, but much less intrusive than a regular RGB camera.
This difference with the cameras is the argument used by researchers as to why DensePose can be an advantage in terms of privacy. The researchers argue that these WiFi routers could be used as a substitute for video surveillance systems .
The WiFi to detect the presence of people is more private than directly recording them. «Most households in developed countries already have home WiFi, and that technology can be extended to monitor the well-being of older people or simply identify suspicious behaviour at home,» the authors explain.
So…dear conspirator friend, we have to add a blue pill to our daily meal to be able to live with this, because there are so many WiFi networks around as…Ah, and lately I caught my Internet Service Provider activating remotely in my own router an opened WiFi, without any password,….without my permission! Can you believe it? A submarine periscope in my living room checking devices…BRRR
Enjoy! :S
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