acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

ACM TechNews

MIT Researchers Can See Through Walls Using 'wi-Vi'


View as: Print Mobile App Share:
A man wearing 'x-ray specs.'

The Wi-Vi technology uses Wi-Fi signals to track moving objects on the other side of walls.

Credit: pokerbug.blogspot.com

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers are developing Wi-Vi, a system that uses wireless Wi-Fi technology to track moving objects through walls.

MIT professor Dina Katabi says the technology could be built into handheld devices and used in search-and-rescue missions and law enforcement. Katabi notes that consumers might use the technology to see if they are being followed.

Although Wi-Vi currently has very low resolution, the researchers are working on a higher resolution version that would enable it to show recognizable faces.

Wi-Vi works by sending Wi-Fi radio waves through a barrier and measuring the way the waves bounce back, similar to the way radar and sonar work, according to Katabi. Wi-Vi transmits two Wi-Fi signals, one of which is the inverse of the other. When one signal hits a stationary object, the other intercepts it. However, due to the way the signals are encoded, they do not cancel each other out, which makes the reflections from a moving person visible despite there being a wall between that person and the Wi-Vi device.

Although the technology could raise privacy concerns, Katabi notes that, "like all technologies in the world, it depends on us how we use them."

From IDG News Service
View Full Article
 

Abstracts Copyright © 2013 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA


 

No entries found

Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account