Skip to main content

Smart technology sees through walls to track and identify people


JASON DORFMAN/MIT CSAI
#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #MIT #Robotics

A group of researchers and students at MIT have developed an intelligent radar-like technology that makes it possible to see through walls to track people as they move around, a development that could prove useful for monitoring the elderly or sick as well as for other applications — but that also raises privacy concerns.

Tests show that the technology, known as RF-Pose, can reveal whether someone is walking, sitting, standing or even waving — and can identify individuals from a known group with a success rate of 83 percent. Its developers say it could prove useful for law enforcement, search and rescue, and — perhaps most important — health care.

“We’ve seen that monitoring patients’ walking speed and ability to do basic activities on their own gives healthcare providers a window into their lives that they didn’t have before, which could be meaningful for a whole range of diseases,” Dina Katabi, a computer scientist at MIT and leader of the group, said in a statement.

She and her colleagues presented new research about the technology last month at a computer vision conference in Salt Lake City.













RF-Pose can detect human movement behind a wall using radio waves.MIT CSAIL

Katabi said doctors might use the technology to keep tabs on someone with Parkinson’s disease by watching for changes in gait that might indicate a looming problem. Or people might use it to monitor an elderly relative — for example, to receive an instant alert if he or she falls.
The technology, which uses artificial intelligence to interpret radio wave data, grows out of earlier work by the same group. Previous versions of the technology could detect a person’s silhouette behind a wall, but Katabi said this is the first time it’s been possible to closely track and identify people.
The heart of RF-Pose is a laptop-sized radio transmitter. The radio waves it beams out pass through walls but is reflected by human bodies because of their high water content. Computer algorithms analyze the reflected waves, homing in on the head, hands, feet and other key body parts to produce moving stick figures on a screen.













The technology could prove useful for a range of applications, including law enforcement, search and rescue, and healthcare.MIT CSAIL

Katabi and her team trained RF-Pose by giving it photographs of people as well as the crude images created by the reflected radio waves. Eventually, RF-Posed learned to produce a stick figure whenever its radio signals indicated the presence of a person.
What do other experts make of the new technology? Ginés Hidalgo, a research associate at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, told NBC News MACH in an email that it was of limited use at this point because the radio signals it uses are unable to pass through thick walls.
"It could become a breakthrough" if that limitation can be addressed, said Hidalgo, who was not involved in the project.
But Hidalgo said the technology also raises privacy concerns. "If a normal camera is recording me, it means I am able to see the camera, too," he said in the email. "If this camera can be hidden behind or even inside an object, I would never be able to know when I am being monitored."
Katabi acknowledged such concerns. “Particularly in the current climate, this is an important question,” she told the news outlet Motherboard.“We have developed mechanisms to block the use of the technology, and it anonymizes and encrypts the data."
The researchers are working to test RF-Pose with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and hope eventually to market a commercial version of the technology.
by Kate Baggaley / Jul.08.2018 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Most Americans will need a new ID to fly, starting in October

#RealD #DriversLicense #Travel #Airport #HomelandSecurity #TSA Think your driver's license is enough to get you through airport security in the United States and onto your domestic flight? Maybe not. Some two-thirds of US state driver's licenses are not compliant with a post-9/11 security law set to go into effect on October 1. Those who are not compliant will not be able to fly if they don't have other forms of "REAL ID-compliant" identification. Concerned about the impact on travel, the head of the US Department of Homeland Security loosened the restrictions this week, allowing the various state agencies to accept identity documents electronically. While Wolf says this "pre-submission" of documents will result in a faster application process, it's not clear how much faster it will be. The REAL ID Act, which established minimum security standards for the issuing of state licenses and their production, prohibits federal agencies from ...

Stress may lead to lower cognitive function, study finds.

#Stress #Cardiovascularriskfactors #Yale, #JAMA #AfricanAmerican #Alzheimers #cognitivefunction A new study found that people with elevated stress levels are more likely to experience a decline in cognitive function, affecting their capacity to remember, concentrate and learn new things. Stress is known to take a physical toll on the body, raising the risk of stroke, poor immune response and more. It can also drive people to unhealthy behaviors like smoking and poor physical activity. The study, published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open, did find that participants with elevated stress levels were more likely to have uncontrolled cardiovascular risk factors and poor lifestyle factors. But even after adjusting for many of these physical risk factors, the researchers found that people with elevated stress levels were 37% more likely to have poor cognition. People who struggle with memory slips can be stressed because of the challenges that brings. But the new study suggests that the connecti...

Yale neuroscientists debunked the idea that anyone is “normal”

#Yale #Normal #neuroscientists  #Study  #Human  Don’t you wish everyone would just act more normal, like you? I know I do. But normal is a relative state that depends on time, place, and circumstance. There’s no one right way to be a human, and that applies to mental as well as physical states. That’s why neuroscientists are advocating for more recognition of the bizarre normalcy of all complex humans in psychiatry—an argument that can help all of us take a bigger-picture view. A new study published in Trends in Cognitive Science on Feb. 20 debunks the myth of normalcy in people and animals. “ The Myth of Optimality in Clinical Neuroscience ” (paywall), by Avram Holmes and Lauren Patrick of the Yale University psychology department, uses evolution to show that uniformity in our brains is totally abnormal. What’s much more common in life, during its  3.5 billion years of evolving existence on Earth , is range and change, variety in and among creatures and ha...

A Poetic Reflection on The New Year by Sharon L DuBois

#Happy New Year #NewBeginnings #SharonDubois #2025 H ow many times has one year flown by, without my humble, wide-eyed A mazement at the awesome wonders and blessings contained within? Is it P ossible that I have forgotten about the seemingly small, occasionally overlooked, daily miracles?? P eeking a blind eye around a blind corner to the approaching tomorrow, neglecting the precious gift of all Y esterdays. Reminder to self: Express genuine thankfulness for my family, friends, my job, which provides harvest-yielding seed, & All Praises to My Heavenly Father, whose Grace abounds brand spankin’ N ew every morning, as evidenced by my health, life,  and strength. With each drop of rain, and rising of the sun, I am made aware of the E ver-present opportunity to do a “new thing”, a “new way”, with a “renewed mind”!! No logical reason to W hine or complain about difficulties along the journey, “JUST DO IT!!” The sum total of each and every one of my Y est...