Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

MIT Researchers Can Take Your Pulse, Right Through the Walls

Posted by timothy on from the proof-of-life dept.

An anonymous reader writes MIT researchers develop technology that can monitor people's breathing and heart rate through walls. 'Their latest report demonstrates that they can now detect gestures as subtle as the rise and fall of a person's chest. From that, they can determine a person's heart rate with 99 percent accuracy. The research could be used for health-tracking apps, baby monitors, and for the military and law enforcement.' The report describes how they extended their through-wall technology to up to five users and how they track vital signs.

9 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Coming soon to a TV near you by Animats · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This will probably be a feature in new TV sets. Of course, all this data will be transmitted to advertisers.

    (On the other hand, it would be great for gyms and for workout programs.)

  2. More Uses for Aluminium foil by mbone · · Score: 3, Informative

    Aluminum foil will nicely block the 5.46-7.25 GHz (4-5 cm) radio waves used for this radar (as would a typical screen door). I wonder who will be the first to market RF-opaque sheet-rock, which would technically easy to make.

    1. Re:More Uses for Aluminium foil by pushing-robot · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's a losing battle, unfortunately. We can't remember one simple 2048-bit private key, we emit all varieties of radiation, we leave a literal trail of identifiable chemical signatures, we're susceptible to an enormous variety of attacks, have only a vague notion of what's going on around us (or, for that matter, inside us), have predictable needs and habits, share important details of our lives with others, and last but not least, are frequently willing to trade our privacy for a little convenience or money.

      In short: we're loud and messy, and trying to make a human invisible to the technology of today and tomorrow is ultimately futile. It's like DRM; the most you can do is make it slightly harder and impose laws declaring the water should stay in the sieve.

      Hopefully we'll wise up someday and stop caring about the pointless minutiae of each others' lives, and decide that as long as technological advance means we're heading for a panopticon anyway, it needs to be owned by all the people.

      Not holding my breath, though.

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    2. Re:More Uses for Aluminium foil by sjames · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But given that in the US, even use of commonly-available infrared-scanning equipment by law enforcement requires a warrant, I doubt very much that even more intrusive scanning would be ruled legal for LEO without a warrant.

      So they'll use it anyway and then use 'parallel construction' to convict you.

    3. Re:More Uses for Aluminium foil by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 4, Interesting

      So they'll use it anyway and then use 'parallel construction' to convict you.

      Nah. Been tried.

      Multiple cases, in California, New York, and other jurisdictions have all found the same way: it's illegal. The police can fuck off.

      A few years ago, ex-Texas-Ranger Barry Cooper and his fellow Kop Busters heard that IR scanning was happening in NYC, despite it having been ruled illegal without a warrant. They rented an apartment, bugged and alarmed it, rigged it up with an artificial Christmas tree and some grow lights (curtains all closed), and walked away. (But not far... they stayed out of the way in a nearby building.)

      When the cops busted in, they were greeted with automatic video cameras and a big sign that said, "You guys are BUSTED!"

      The video was even posted on the Internet. The PD got in trouble with the State.

  3. Horseshit by dcollins · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The research could be used for health-tracking apps, baby monitors, and for the military and law enforcement."

    Yeah, lead with the health-tracking and baby monitors, which actually benefits the subject, such that the subject would happily allow a monitor right next to them, and thus "through the walls" monitoring will never, ever get used.

    Bury the bit about using it shoot people who break a drug law, or a resister of some foreign tyranny, in a way that they never have a chance to see it coming, which is how this will actually get used.

    Ugh.

    --
    We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
  4. So, who funded this? by mbone · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have read the paper and thing that is noticeable for an academic paper is that there appears to be no acknowledgement of the source of funding, which leads me to wonder who is paying for this and why they want that link kept quiet.

  5. Re:Airports by m00sh · · Score: 4, Informative

    Depending on how well it can separate subjects, this could be quite useful in an airport for (non-descriminative) screening.

    You've got one guy walking through whose heartrate is abnormally high, there's a decent change he's up to something inappropriate (smuggling, terrorism). The other possibility is that he has a fear of flying, but secondary screening should hopefully be able to determine that.

    Even better, have an airport security person walk by him or just look him in the eye and smile, then see if his heart-rate goes up even more. Sudden jump in vitals... bingo!

    I'm pretty sure the smuggler who figures out how to keep his heart rate low can suddenly be super effective. Then, this will give the incentive to create methods to learn how to control your heart-rate and it will be soon mastered by many smugglers.

    However, a normal person who has a high heart rate for whatever reason (a text from an old girlfriend, a cryptic e-mail from the boss etc) will be endlessly harassed.

    The pros will get around it because they will encounter it everyday. The only people who will suffer is the ordinary people who will encounter it occasionally and have no way to know what to do and get fucked by the elaborate system setup for terrorists.

  6. Tracking heartbeats through walls is not new... by acx2 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Research in tracking heart rate and respiration using radio waves has been happening for decades. Technology has progressed to the point where modern devices can detect a heartbeat through 30 feet of rubble or 20 feet of solid concrete: http://www.dhs.gov/detecting-h... . Chapter 2 of Jonathan S Burnham's 2009 MIT master's thesis seems to have a nice historical overview: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/6... . There probably are novel things about the MIT technology mentioned in the original post (e.g. lower power RF or better separation of individuals), but there is nothing new about tracking heart rate and respiratory rate through walls.