MIT Is Building a Health-Tracking Sensor That Can See Through Walls (technologyreview.com) 49
Rachel Metz reports via MIT Technology Review: Imagine a box, similar to a Wi-Fi router, that sits in your home and tracks all kinds of physiological signals as you move from room to room: breathing, heart rate, sleep, gait, and more. Dina Katabi, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, built this box in her lab. And in the not-so-distant future, she believes, it will be able to replace the array of expensive, bulky, uncomfortable gear we currently need to get clinical data about the body. Speaking at MIT Technology Review's EmTech conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, Katabi said the box she's been building for the last several years takes advantage of the fact that every time we move -- even if it's just a teeny, tiny bit, such as when we breathe -- we change the electromagnetic field surrounding us.
Her device transmits a low-power wireless signal throughout a space the size of a one- or two-bedroom apartment (even through walls), and the signal reflects off people's bodies. The device then uses machine learning to analyze those reflected signals and extract physiological data. So far, it has been installed in over 200 homes of both healthy people and those with conditions like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, depression, and pulmonary diseases, she said. Katabi cofounded a startup called Emerald Innovations to commercialize the technology and has already made the device available to biotech and pharmaceutical companies for studies.
Her device transmits a low-power wireless signal throughout a space the size of a one- or two-bedroom apartment (even through walls), and the signal reflects off people's bodies. The device then uses machine learning to analyze those reflected signals and extract physiological data. So far, it has been installed in over 200 homes of both healthy people and those with conditions like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, depression, and pulmonary diseases, she said. Katabi cofounded a startup called Emerald Innovations to commercialize the technology and has already made the device available to biotech and pharmaceutical companies for studies.
Paging Dr. McCoy (Score:2)
Your sickbay is ready!
Wonderful device for prison-wardens (Score:4, Insightful)
Seems like a great device for watching the imprisoned... Who is really asleep, and who is faking it. Sigh...
Re: (Score:3)
Seems like a great device for watching the general public... Who is really asleep, and who is faking it. Sigh...
-ftfy
Re: (Score:2)
To watch the "general public", you need to install this in places, where this public resides — and sleeps. Not only is it difficult, it is also pointless — what purchase is there in knowing, Joe Shmoe is not really asleep?
In prisons the population is already under surveillance and has no right to privacy. It is also assumed to be up to no good at all times. These two factors make the prison use-case easier to explain and justify than even
Re: (Score:2)
I like your sig. What would the KGB do with tech?
No. (Score:4, Insightful)
Tracking our cell locations, scanning our license plates, listening to us in our homes with smart speakers and tv's... and now you want to know what room I'm in and all my vitals all the time? Unless I'm already bed ridden and dying, no. Seriously!
Re:No. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Watch for home builders to start offering Faraday walls. Much cheaper to build this in than to retrofit.
Re: (Score:1)
Unless I'm already bed ridden and dying, no. Seriously!
That's literally their target consumer.
Re: (Score:3)
Also, what if they install this device in my old and dying neighbour's house, and the thing is also able to track me and my wife? That's pretty sensitive data. Perhaps they will ask our permission: "surely you wouldn't deprive your dying neighbour the care he deserves over some pidling privacy concerns? Do you have something to hide?"
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
What kind of EM field do donuts give off?
Re: (Score:2)
Nice way to spin a scope that tracks targets through walls.
You seem to imply this is some kind of problem. I'd like the police to know the difference between the victims and the criminals when trying to resolve a hostage situation, even if there is a wall in the way. One thing taught in the Army is that concealment is not always cover, this just adds another dimension to that. I'd rather we figure out how this works before our adversaries do.
Not buying it (Score:4, Insightful)
One would hope Theranos would be a big enough warning signal, but evidently there are way too many stupid idiots with more money than I'll ever earn in a lifetime. Wish I was smart enough to swindle, err, get them to invest in my company. Which turns empty beer caps into gold. It's patented, but trust me it works. Send me money (I have enough beer caps hanging off my ceiling) and I'll make you rich. Rich I say, Rich beyond your wildest imagination! Just send money. But don't call it beer money.
Anybody made it find the big water pipe in wall? (Score:2)
I get how the general theory is supposed to work. Also, this idea has me thinking:
We know that radio waves or other electromagnetic waves bounce off surfaces, in a way that an antenna can only barely detect the general direction of a large object. Can a device makes sense of refected electromagnetic waves in order to see high resolution detail? Well, ever heard of a camera - or eyes? Visible light is electromagnetic waves just like radio, only at a different frequency. So in theory there's no reason this
Re: This "tech" keeps popping up (Score:1)
That is because you keep stupidly expecting it to be used BY you instead of ON or AGAINST you.
Um, no. (Score:1)
"Don't worry," said the government, "this is for your own good. Just trust us this one more time."
nothing to see here (Score:3, Insightful)
Nothing to see here.
This definitely isn't totalitarian technology. It certainly won't be used by the police-state government we don't have to ramp up the panopticon we don't already live in just a little bit further.
I'm sure the Stasi, the Gestapo, Big Brother Google, and the Department of War have no interest whatsoever in this technology. There's zero chance it will be used for evil. It's totally not true that this tech will be irresistible to a repressive government like we don't have.
In summary, there's nothing to worry about. Move along now.
Re: (Score:1)
I want one! (Score:1)
Hey neighbour (Score:2)
Hey neighbour, I noticed you have guests over, spend time in bed with them, with elevated heart rate. So.. does your wife know about that?
This is a surveillance nightmare, and researchers should account for that in their work. This 'fundamental science is neutral' stuff often hinders having a good debate. Every single time the positive things get a lot fanfare, wh
I find this development a bit creepy, (Score:3)
but I think it would be great for sleep studies. The non-sleep I got on that crappy little cot, while I was wired up and had a rubber band around by belly, was in no way representative of a typical night's sleep. I would expect better, more accurate results with less invasive equipment, and this development sounds as though it would help. We might even gain the ability to do sleep studies in the patient's home, resulting in results both more representative of a typical night's sleep, and less disruptive.
Can it detect a hardon? (Score:2)
Cool. Can it tell me if I've got a woodie? Used to be it was pretty obvious. Nowadays I can't feel nothin. Plus it's as unimpressive hard as soft and hidden below my beerbelly..
Yea, you young pups go ahead and laugh. You'll get here sooner than you think.