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Wireless Network Modded To See Through Walls

KentuckyFC writes "The way radio signals vary in a wireless network can reveal the movement of people behind closed doors, say researchers who have developed a technique called variance-based radio tomographic imaging which processes wireless signals to peer through walls. They've tested the idea with a 34-node wireless network using the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless protocol (the personal area network protocol employed by home automation services such as ZigBee). The researchers say that such a network could be easily distributed by the police or military wanting to determine what's going on inside a building. But such a network, which uses cheap off-the-shelf components, might also be easily deployed by your neighbor or anybody else wanting to monitor movements in your home."

13 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Kids by sopssa · · Score: 4, Funny

    wanting to determine what's going on inside a building.

    Now when teens want to sneak out at night, they can easily see thru walls if their parents are sleeping!

    1. Re:Kids by tag · · Score: 5, Funny

      And imagine the teens' surprise and horror when they discover their parents aren't "sleeping" at all...

    2. Re:Kids by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Funny

      Unless they are sneaking out to the local linux kernel developer's symposium.

    3. Re:Kids by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sneaking out at night to find computer parts? Were the parts roaming around in the wilderness at nick back then or something?

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    4. Re:Kids by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes...

      Actually buddies of mine weould make a late night pilgramage to Benton Harbor, MI to tresspass on the HeathKit compound to go dumpster diving. WE almost got caught about 8 times. I got enough out of their dumpsters to build my first IBM-XT and a HERO-I robot back in the late 80's.

      In fact it was my buddies that started heathkit destroying things they put in the trash. One of them got greedy and started selling the crap we got out of the dumpsters.

      --
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  2. Fear mongering by skornenicholas · · Score: 5, Funny

    Went straight for the "everyone is spying on me!" ploy a little quick there. Seriously, if anything my neighbors request to see LESS of my movements. This may be due to the fact that I have a clear shower curtain and my bathroom doors lines up to a big bay window facing the road...took me two months to realize that one.

  3. They're a little late... by ibsteve2u · · Score: 5, Funny

    What with three wireless hubs, an RFID scanner, and half-a-dozen Bluetooth devices always on, I'm pretty sure I'm already casting EMF shadows on my walls.

    Been seeing some really big spiders, too...

    --
    Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
  4. Seymour Hersh hinted at this a few years ago by mantis2009 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh said that the U.S. military had developed a secret new technology for use in urban warfare. He said the technology was revolutionary, equivalent to the first time tanks were deployed on the battlefield. From what I remember, there was speculation that Hersh had learned that the military could now see through walls.

    1. Re:Seymour Hersh hinted at this a few years ago by dintech · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And we're one step closer to Aliens-esque movemnet detector...

  5. Something the community can get into by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You can get xbee-equipped computers (mostly with pics, avrs, basic stamps, etc) for super cheap, like three for a bill. I'm considering them for a remote monitoring and control application where wifi is overkill in some ways and inadequate in others (line of sight issues.) Current xbee modules all seem to support mesh networking, which is really the big draw to me of the protocol itself here, or at least the most readily available implementation. Being able to put out a sensor net and get a sort of meta-sense out of it would be all the more exciting. I'm sure the same thought has occurred to everyone, of course. This seems like the kind of thing that would give the [para]military types a massive hard-on given that they're already playing with the idea of gigantic numbers of drones and communications devices scattered across the battlefields of tomorrow... and our homes and cities.

    --
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  6. Re:I think I see a problem here. by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which means they'll want WiFi access on the porch, the back yard - the patio and the sundeck.

    I think you mean the front observation deck, the firing range, and the snipers nest.

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  7. Re:Fear mongering by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe he only showers every two months?

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    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  8. Re:Wow innovation! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    However, this isn't radar, it's tomography. Radio tomography. And the innovation isn't radio tomography, it's using stock WiFi hardware to do it, but I suspect you already knew that.