Wi-Fi Router Enables You To See Through Walls. The concept of radar that makes the use of radio waves to detect things has existed since 1930. But the researchers at University College, London have come up with the way to do the same thing by using Wi-Fi radio signals. This technology makes use of Doppler Effect and the new prototype consists of radio receiver with two antennas and a signal processing unit which can easily be fit inside a suitcase. The working principle of this device can be explained from the picture above. A simple Wi-Fi router fills the local area with radio waves of either 2.4 Gigahertz or 5 Gigahertz. When a person walks past these signals, the signals tend to bounce off them and the frequency of these radio waves increases or decreases depending on whether the person is walking towards or away from the source. The first antenna present in the unit tracks the baseline of the radio signal while the other one monitors those frequencies that have bounced off a person. By comparing both the signals the computational unit present in the system calculates the position, speed and direction of the object. This technology has been tested to work across one foot thick walls. The Wi-Fi radar system could have many applications, such as monitoring the young or the elderly, and even for military purposes. The U.K Ministry of Defence has provided the funds to conduct a study to test if this technology can be applied in urban warfare. According to the researchers, this prototype could be enhanced to detect subtle movements like the rib cage during breathing which would help check whether a person present on the other side of the wall is standing or sitting.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 18:59:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015