Can your WiFi track your every move? I came across an
interesting article while doing research for my Senior Design project. It can
be found here:
Article Summary:
This article describes how WiFi could be used to precisely
track every move you make in your own home. The technology is being developed
by students at the University of Washington and its known as
“gesture-recognition technology”. Their research shows that it is possible to
use WiFi signals to detect movements with very high precision, without any
additional sensors on the human body. The data that can be obtained is similar
to that of the Xbox Kinect, but these signals can travel through walls, floors,
and other objects. There are essentially no line of sight restrictions.
The
technology works by tracking slight changes in the frequency of the wireless
signal as a person moves about. The wireless receiver can detect these changes
and determine the movement of a person with incredible accuracy. “This is the
first whole-home gesture recognition system that works without either requiring
instrumentation of the user with sensors or deploying cameras in every room,” said Qifan Pu, a collaborator and visiting student at the
UW. The article states that as many as five people could move simultaneously
without confusing the receiver. The user doesn’t even need to be in the same
room as the receiver.
My Analysis:
The article explains that this technology could be
revolutionary in home automation. People could use a multitude of gestures to
control any appliance in their home. While this may be true, I personally saw a
red flag when reading this article. If there are people out there that can
hijack our wireless connection, then there are people that could use this
technology for no good.
The article discusses hand gestures as something that the
receiver can track and process. If it has the ability to track something so
precise, then it should inherently have the ability to track someone’s exact
position as they move about their home. Someone might even be able to create an
entire visual representation of your home and everyone in it. This is an
incredible invasion of privacy.
I share your sense of concern, but as someone who worked with gesture recognition technology over the past summer (doing game development) I can assure you that this technology will never work quite as well as it is demonstrated. These demo videos are done multiple times until the device works properly, and some are completely doctored. I'm not saying that their research project is a fabrication, but there is always some embellishing that goes along with these kinds of presentations.
ReplyDeletehmm, if this true, it is pretty scary that people can track my wifi and see what I was doing, but I don't think this technology is complete yet. If I go into a site where login is necessary, then they cannot track that, and if I share wifi with other people - for instance, Stevens Student or using same Router - what happens then? Of course, we have to be careful about this technology which can usurp privacy.
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