RF-capture technology Essay

How many of you from the age of one to present day have said to yourself, "man, I wish I could see through walls like Superman!" Well, now you can...almost. A team of computer scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created a system called RF-capture, that is able to identify and track the movement of individuals through walls. Currently, researchers are estimating that the RF-capture technology can separately identify between 10 and 15 people simultaneously with over an accuracy rate upwards of 90 percent. According to Fadel Adib, a Ph.D. student, "over the last three years, we have moved from being able to detect someone behind a wall and sense coarse movement, to today, where you can see roughly what a person looks like and even get a person's breathing and heart rate" (Gent, 2015). The current prototype uses radio waves that repel off the human body and are captured by receivers that processes them through an algorithm to track a person's movement in real time. While this may sound dangerous, the wavelengths used in the device is approximately 1000 times less powerful than the wavelengths being emitted by current Wi-Fi devices used today. Because of advanced software and hardware, the device is able to abstract a great amount of information without using a powerful signal life Wi-Fi (Gent, 2015).
Now that the background is out of the way, the main question on everyone's mind is, how does a device like this actually work? Using a T-shaped antenna roughly the size of a traditional laptop computer, a group of four transmitters are outfitted across the vertical section of the antenna, while 16 receivers are placed along the antenna's horizontal base. This antenna is powered and controlled from a standard computer tower that includes a graphic card powerful enough to analyze the amount of data flowing from the antenna. "Because inanimate objects also reflect signals, the system starts by scanning for static features and removes them from its analysis. Then, it takes a series of snapshots, looking for reflections that vary over time, which represent moving human body parts" (Gent, 2015). Although there is no algorithm or amount of research that can identify which body parts the frames will capture, the team has created a work-a-round algorithm solution. Using a basic human skeleton in conjunction with an intelligent algorithm, snapshots taken by the antenna can be stitched together to form a silhouette. Using technology inspired by military radar systems, the algorithm initially scans a large spectrum using minimum antennas. As the number of antennas increase the area condenses, focusing on specific targets (individuals), and eventually their body parts. Surprisingly, this version of the algorithm this early in development is almost 100 percent accurate in identifying the specific body part that moved, within 10 feet through a wall (Gent, 2015).
References
Gent, E. (2015). "X-Ray Vision Tech uses Radio Waves to See Through Walls." LiveScience. Accessed 18 February 2016, http//www.livescience.com/52840-radio-signals-track-movement.html
Williams, B. (2013). Using Information Technology (10th ed.). New York, NY McGraw-Hill.