Related Sections: Military Security
Reseachers use Wi-Fi to see through walls for 'cheap'
As if we all need another reason to wear a tinfoil hat. "The Wi-FI! It can see you, man." Well, thanks to a pair of researchers at the University of Utah, it can. The trick is in using and excess of signals shooting around a room, and then finding the spots of interruption using receivers placed all over.
From the Technology Review:
"Joey Wilson and Neal Patwari have developed a technique called variance-based radio tomographic imaging that processes the signals to reveal signs of movement… The basic idea is straightforward. The signal strength at any point in a network is the sum of all the paths the radio waves can take to get to the receiver. Any change in the volume of space through which the signals pass, for example caused by the movement of a person, makes the signal strength vary. So by "interrogating" this volume of space with many signals, picked up by multiple receivers, it is possible to build up a picture of the movement within it."Okay, so maybe it's not the most subtle way to do it, but researchers Joey Wilson and Neal Patwari are pegging it as an inexpensive way to pull it off as all the tech is off the shelf. The duo believes that it would be perfect for emergency responders, military forces, or police, as it could be a cheap, quick and temporary way to peek through walls.
Technology Review, via The Raw Feed
By bladerunner101 at 4:35 AM ON 10/03/09
ug, imagine anyone with the ability to peep into ur livin quarters. u can go on all nite with that kinda crap. that enough to make ya paranoid. i think that will have to be illeagle very quick and fast before some put it to a bad use. likely to late though .
By Anthony at 11:02 AM ON 10/03/09
With receivers all over, you might as well just have a really small video camera to reduce both the hassle, low image quality, and lots of necessary sensors.
By Will at 2:43 PM ON 10/03/09
your, living, you, night, kind of, thats, you, I, illegal, too.
Just a few of the corrections from your post, bladerunner.
Before you go attacking some tech, learn some basic language skills. I think you're safe from the crappy wifi image spying based on your post.
By Brass Orchid at 3:16 PM ON 10/03/09
Given sensitive enough equipment and the proper software, you should be able to interrogate any space using AM, FM, TV, cellular, GPS and a variety of other radiation sources that permeate our common space. A proper scanning device should be able to derive a 3d model from ambient noise. Of course, the data processing is a bit daunting, which is why this article is about noting changes caused by movement. That requires much less power and finesse. Why, you would barely need punctuation and standard information exchange protocols to extract enough information to construct a model of moving bodies in silhouette.
By Cajun at 10:10 AM ON 10/04/09
Wow, looks about a good quality image as Falcon 1.0 on my ole 386. I ain't skeered.
By Default at 12:02 PM ON 10/04/09
I'm using MY wifi to see through YOUR walls. Convenience!
By Bob at 12:14 AM ON 10/05/09
"Hey, man, you've got a really good connection here!"
"Nah, I've got suddenlink it sucks... wait... IT"S THE COPS, RUN!"
Lol. Seriously, though, this is pretty ridiculously wrong. Because I'm sure eventually after the police have been abusing this tech for a while the courts will be forced to rule it a privacy violation and make them get warrants to do it (like it's not bad enough that the gov't can look into your home without informing you as long as they have permission from the gov't). But I'd imagine they'll obey those rulings about as well as they do all the others about the invasive technology they use to look into our homes. They'll use it all they want to pick out the people they want to arrest, then go find another reason to get into their homes legally - go throw a rock through their window and say they saw a burgular or maybe the ole fashioned surveillance op on the home you already know is growing pot so that you can get a warrant without revealing you had an illegal source of info.
Cops do whatever they can to make their jobs easier, they see privacy and freedom and things like that as dangerous annoyances. This is just one more way for them to watch us.
But I imagine it still wont' make them fast enough to prevent a few crimes, instead of botching the after murder cleanup. Just to put a few more evil pot heads in our overcrowded prisons.
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