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MIT's AI Uses Radio Signals To See People Through Walls (inverse.com)
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new piece of software that uses wifi signals to monitor the movements, breathing, and heartbeats of humans on the other side of walls. While the researchers say this new tech could be used in areas like remote healthcare, it could in theory be used in more dystopian applications. Inverse reports: "We actually are tracking 14 different joints on the body [...] the head, the neck, the shoulders, the elbows, the wrists, the hips, the knees, and the feet," Dina Katabi, an electrical engineering and computer science teacher at MIT, said. "So you can get the full stick-figure that is dynamically moving with the individuals that are obstructed from you -- and that's something new that was not possible before." The technology works a little bit like radar, but to teach their neural network how to interpret these granular bits of human activity, the team at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) had to create two separate A.I.s: a student and a teacher.
[T]he team developed one A.I. program that monitored human movements with a camera, on one side of a wall, and fed that information to their wifi X-ray A.I., called RF-Pose, as it struggled to make sense of the radio waves passing through that wall on the other side. The research builds off of a longstanding project at CSAIL lead by Katabi, which hopes to use this wifi tracking to help passively monitor the elderly and automate any emergency alerts to EMTs and medical professionals if they were to fall or suffer some other injury. For more information, a press release and video about the software are available.
[T]he team developed one A.I. program that monitored human movements with a camera, on one side of a wall, and fed that information to their wifi X-ray A.I., called RF-Pose, as it struggled to make sense of the radio waves passing through that wall on the other side. The research builds off of a longstanding project at CSAIL lead by Katabi, which hopes to use this wifi tracking to help passively monitor the elderly and automate any emergency alerts to EMTs and medical professionals if they were to fall or suffer some other injury. For more information, a press release and video about the software are available.
Good really does need this more... Intelligence forces just plant hidden camera in your room, but senior support services need to be able to monitor senior motion without privacy violations like that to monitor for falls.
-The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
The source signal isn't designed to be used for imaging. Yes, you can train an AI for one particular room and its reflections. This isn't going to transfer to learning in a different set of reflections.
If you want to look in people's house, just use IR.
I'm glad I installed Cat 5e ethernet cable in my home 10 years ago!
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
the close combat applications of this are pretty straight forward. device plots movement, a shot can be fired at a limb, or center mass area. when the heart stops, move on. usually 3 taps causes the victim to bleed out. all and all, a cheap solution for pain in the rear problem. of course if the victim is a senior, then all the senior has to do is start talking about any subject. this irreversibly causes the assassin to shot themselves. unfortunately for team members of the assassin, when they enter the same room, they to will face the outcome.
Even this report is a dupe of a report from the exact same MIT research group back in 2013...
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...
News from 2011.
See-Through Walls: Motion Tracking Using Variance-Based Radio Tomography Networks
https://www.semanticscholar.or... [semanticscholar.org]
I wonder if maybe that's why the summary said "The research builds off of a longstanding project at CSAIL lead by Katabi".
In 2013 they could detect that a person (or person-sized object) was present. Now they have a stick figure showing what the person is doing, the positions of their head, arms and legs, along with a clear path on how to see finger movements and such.
...tried it but I kept tripping on the Cat5e cable that was connected to my phone.
Nothing to worry about here.
MIT would never weaponize the technology they develop. They totally don't run a major DoD weapons research laboratory. No one there is involved in the development of killer robots. I'm certain they haven't had any thoughts at all of selling this privacy invasion tech to repressive regimes for use in their automated tyranny systems.
Thank goodness for MITtens!
One could argue that monitoring people’s movement with WIFI signals and without their consent is still a privacy violation. It is no different than using hidden cameras, just different wavelengths.
Average citizens no longer care about privacy invasion. Hell, they're no longer in a position to even define privacy. 'Reality' TV shows, pervasive video surveillance, selling out themselves and all their acquaintances on Facebook, and turning a blind, (or not so blind), eye to the advertisers that stalk them around the Web - I'd say "privacy" is pretty much a meaningless word now among the majority of folks.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Because they ARE.... Less crazy that is..
Actually, most of them get wrapped around what's possible and forget to consider what's practical. If wrapping tinfoil around their heads helps them keep it all in, so be it.
However, this might actually help them get those hats off because tinfoil makes a great RF reflector and makes it easier to track their movements behind that wall. Be sure to mention that to the next one you meet.. ;)
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Just use a radiant barrier as the moisture barrier and save energy too. As a bonus, you can take off the tinfoil underwear inside your home.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101