They’ve used that to track subtle movements of human bodies, like breathing, from behind walls, but the new system is capable of seeing even finer detail.
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The MIT team says that its RF-Capture device is only about a year away from being a commercial product. Basically the device will send out WiFi signals from one side of the wall.
The researchers have already pledged to improve the technology, which they said will be more accurate in the future.
A team at the university just shared its paper on how they’ve developed the technology to not only detect human movements through walls – a development made back in 2013 – but also to see individuals’ silhouettes, distinguish different people from each other and even sense different postures.
“Today actors have to wear markers on their bodies and move in a specific room full of cameras”, explained Adib.
According to the researchers, the applications for this kind of body tracking could have an impact on everything from the motion capture used in Hollywood movies to smart home capabilities for consumers, helping people run their houses with greater efficiency and safety.
The researchers believe this technology can be used for more sophisticated motion capture in film, as it would be able to capture the actor’s movements without body sensors, as well as advanced gaming interfaces, as it could allow gamers to interact with games from different rooms or control the game using only hand movements.
“We’re working to turn this technology into an in-home device that can call 911 if it detects that a family member has fallen unconscious”, said researcher Dina Katabi, director of the MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing.
“The possibilities are vast”, Adib said. “We’re just at the beginning of thinking about the different ways to use these technologies”. As various part of the body are reflected in the wireless signal, the RF-Capture takes snapshots.
It then stitches them together and presents a complete human figure in what looks like a heat sensor map, with the head, chest, arms and feet brightly colored against the blue background. “For example, can we track human fingers from behind a wall?” The device then interprets these reflections and creates pictures using the data it gets from the signals.
Katabi said they can extract meaningful signals through a series of algorithms they developed that minimize the random noise produced by the reflections.
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The Emerald Fall Detection system is still under development but it was demonstrated by the researchers to President Obama in August.
