RF-Capture technology lets you “see” through walls
Welcome to our readers on the iCover Blog Pages . Today, in our news section, we present the development of the CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab) team at the Massachusetts Institute of Informatics and Artificial Intelligence (MIT), an advanced RF-Capture technology that allows you to use your radio to determine your body position and recognize the simplest human movements within the 3D space behind the wall.
The radio signals studied by the RF-Capture hardware-software complex are reflected from fragments of the body (s) in real time, processed by the program and formed on the monitor screen in an image whose external characteristics correspond to the characteristics of a real image of a person or group of people who are at that moment beyond wall or other physical obstacle (blockage ...).
"Despite the fact that the method allows you to obtain a minimum amount of external data," said the director of the Wireless @ MIT center, Professor Dina Katabi, “the displayed information minimizes the likelihood of errors in determining the position of the body of a moving or stationary person in neighboring rooms." “Observing 3D space using RF-Capture technology will allow us to capture the moment when a person fell unconscious, to determine the place where the light or TV is not turned off, or, for example, to visually evaluate the performance of the heating equipment system."
Unlike alternative methods of human visualization, which use x-rays, light, terahertz radiation and millimeter waves, RF-Capture technology uses low-frequency waves (5.46-7.24 GHz) that can pass through walls. The intensity of the radio signals passing through the walls and reflected from the human body is almost 10 thousand times weaker than the signals transmitted by standard cell phones and a thousand times weaker than the Wi-Fi signal. A major advantage of the technology is the ability to use widespread and inexpensive electronic components, which makes the technology publicly available.
The process of scanning the space behind the wall consists of two successive steps. The first stage involves the registration of signals reflected from all elements of the controlled volume of the room, including the human body, carried out placed in the corner of the room where a “phased” 2D phased array (60x18 cm) is being conducted on 16 receiving and 4 transmitting elements. At the second stage, changes in the selected and summed useful signal due to the movement of the object are tracked.
Low-frequency radio waves do not allow you to get a detailed image of the scanned image on the screen. At the same time, the capabilities of software algorithms RF-Capture allow you to select a specific person from several in the same room. For this purpose, a preliminary entry into the database of a number of individual metric characteristics, such as growth and body contours, performing the role of a kind of identifier, will be required. According to the results of the experiment, the RF-Capture system made it possible to identify up to 95.7% of a particular person from 5 people present in the same room and with an accuracy of 88.2% when increasing their number to 15. At the distance of the “object” on the other side of the wall at 3 m, moving body fragments are recognized with an accuracy of 99.13%, at a distance of 8 m - with an accuracy of 76.4%.
According to CSAIL experts, the possibilities of the proposed program at this stage may well be used in various areas of our lives. In the game interface - as an extension of the capabilities of Kinect. In cinema, where actors have to put on costumes with markers and motion sensors to create special effects, with the advent of RF Capture the process will be much easier, since movements can now be tracked directly. Using the RF Capture software and hardware system, firefighters, rescuers, and counterterrorism units will receive extremely important and sufficiently accurate information for deciding whereabouts of a person in the building, and parents will be able to use the system as a means of visual "baby monitoring". The inventors are convinced:
The first commercial product developed by the CSAIL team on the principles of RF Capture technology will enter the market under the name Emerald and will be targeted at people who are surrounded by weak and elderly people who need constant care and remote supervision, including the need to prevent their probable fall. And here in some cases, the RF-Capture ability to track the movement and position of the human chest can be very useful.
Dear readers, we are always happy to meet and wait for you on the pages of our blog. We are ready to continue to please you with our publications and will try to do our best to ensure that the time spent with us is pleasing to you. And, of course, do not forget to subscribe to our sections and we promise - it won’t be boring!
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The radio signals studied by the RF-Capture hardware-software complex are reflected from fragments of the body (s) in real time, processed by the program and formed on the monitor screen in an image whose external characteristics correspond to the characteristics of a real image of a person or group of people who are at that moment beyond wall or other physical obstacle (blockage ...).
"Despite the fact that the method allows you to obtain a minimum amount of external data," said the director of the Wireless @ MIT center, Professor Dina Katabi, “the displayed information minimizes the likelihood of errors in determining the position of the body of a moving or stationary person in neighboring rooms." “Observing 3D space using RF-Capture technology will allow us to capture the moment when a person fell unconscious, to determine the place where the light or TV is not turned off, or, for example, to visually evaluate the performance of the heating equipment system."
Unlike alternative methods of human visualization, which use x-rays, light, terahertz radiation and millimeter waves, RF-Capture technology uses low-frequency waves (5.46-7.24 GHz) that can pass through walls. The intensity of the radio signals passing through the walls and reflected from the human body is almost 10 thousand times weaker than the signals transmitted by standard cell phones and a thousand times weaker than the Wi-Fi signal. A major advantage of the technology is the ability to use widespread and inexpensive electronic components, which makes the technology publicly available.
The process of scanning the space behind the wall consists of two successive steps. The first stage involves the registration of signals reflected from all elements of the controlled volume of the room, including the human body, carried out placed in the corner of the room where a “phased” 2D phased array (60x18 cm) is being conducted on 16 receiving and 4 transmitting elements. At the second stage, changes in the selected and summed useful signal due to the movement of the object are tracked.
Low-frequency radio waves do not allow you to get a detailed image of the scanned image on the screen. At the same time, the capabilities of software algorithms RF-Capture allow you to select a specific person from several in the same room. For this purpose, a preliminary entry into the database of a number of individual metric characteristics, such as growth and body contours, performing the role of a kind of identifier, will be required. According to the results of the experiment, the RF-Capture system made it possible to identify up to 95.7% of a particular person from 5 people present in the same room and with an accuracy of 88.2% when increasing their number to 15. At the distance of the “object” on the other side of the wall at 3 m, moving body fragments are recognized with an accuracy of 99.13%, at a distance of 8 m - with an accuracy of 76.4%.
According to CSAIL experts, the possibilities of the proposed program at this stage may well be used in various areas of our lives. In the game interface - as an extension of the capabilities of Kinect. In cinema, where actors have to put on costumes with markers and motion sensors to create special effects, with the advent of RF Capture the process will be much easier, since movements can now be tracked directly. Using the RF Capture software and hardware system, firefighters, rescuers, and counterterrorism units will receive extremely important and sufficiently accurate information for deciding whereabouts of a person in the building, and parents will be able to use the system as a means of visual "baby monitoring". The inventors are convinced:
The first commercial product developed by the CSAIL team on the principles of RF Capture technology will enter the market under the name Emerald and will be targeted at people who are surrounded by weak and elderly people who need constant care and remote supervision, including the need to prevent their probable fall. And here in some cases, the RF-Capture ability to track the movement and position of the human chest can be very useful.
Dear readers, we are always happy to meet and wait for you on the pages of our blog. We are ready to continue to please you with our publications and will try to do our best to ensure that the time spent with us is pleasing to you. And, of course, do not forget to subscribe to our sections and we promise - it won’t be boring!
Our other articles and events