5 ms·

Could wireless replace wearables?

59 points by msolujic 12y ago

aw3c2 12y ago
Direct link: http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/could-wireless-replace-wearables http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/could-wireless-replace-wearab...
- dang 12y ago
  Thanks. We changed it from http://gigaom.com/2014/06/13/mit-can-now-track-a-heart-rate-through-a-wall-with-wi-fi-signals/ http://gigaom.com/2014/06/13/mit-can-now-track-a-heart-rate-....
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
reitanqild 12y ago
Let me guess this can have a wide range of applications outside of baby monitoring as well...
- spacefight 12y ago
  Did you mean "baby making" monitoring? ;)
  - XorNot 12y ago
    Just as illegal as when you try it with a thermal camera?
mattgibson 12y ago
So someone could make that motion tracker thing out of Alien, which works through walls, just using wifi and an LCD screen? I want one. Where's the app? Actually, reading the original paper, it needs quite a bulky antenna array, looking like a TV aerial (photo on page 3: http://18.7.29.232/bitstream/handle/1721.1/86299/MIT-CSAIL-TR-2014-008.pdf?sequence=1 http://18.7.29.232/bitstream/handle/1721.1/86299/MIT-CSAIL-T...) I still want one.
Nanzikambe 12y ago
I see the future of purchasing intent based analytic solutions, and it is scary! Now in store mechanisms will not only determine the customer's intent and object/area of interest (this is the current "big thing"), but assess heart rate and infer excitement too! There you are, beset by a horde of sales people who recoil in horror when they find your elevated heart rate is the wrong kind of excitement, making the potential sale an awkward one: "Arghh! Get back! Get back! He's in the adult section!" We live in interesting times.
lotsofmangos 12y ago
I read somewhere ages ago about researchers measuring pulse and respiration of a mobile phone user from the data available to a cellular base station.
Houshalter 12y ago
Similar, a camera can also be sufficient to measure heart rate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA5QVm8M9PE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA5QVm8M9PE The method is actually quite interesting. By exaggerating slight changes in color you can actually visually see someone's pulse (and other small changes in the environment.)
- deefourd 12y ago
  Yep, the main difference is that wireless also works through walls, through a bed cover, if the person is facing away from the device, etc.
- ntoshev 12y ago
  I wonder if this technology will eventually become good enough to measure the heart rate of lying politicians from just video records. Bill Clinton would make an excellent example. Makeup might fool it though.
  - SoftwareMaven 12y ago
    You don't need to name a politician to imply lying. Naming one you believed didn't lie would be more interesting. The problem may be similar to the lie detector problem: if so much of what you say is false and, in some way, you really believe it, it may be indistinguishable from the truth.
btbuildem 12y ago
Shudder to think of the military applications of this
- higherpurpose 12y ago
  With autonomous robots.
kator 12y ago
Isn't this just RADAR applied at higher resolutions and indoors? I'm sure they've done some really interesting stuff if you dig deep but this doesn't seem like "Wireless" as much as it's transmitting and observing radio reflections[1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar
- gitah 12y ago
  The article mentioned that there was a ton of noise and the researchers had to use customer filters to remove them. I wonder how well this technology would work in the real world. There will be a lot more interference and random, unexpected obstacles than in a lab environment.
  - kator 12y ago
    I guess I object to calling it "Wireless" when it's really just RADAR. It feels like they're trying to use the term wireless to make it less innocuous? I mean if they said they were working on High Resolution hand-held RADAR systems then the public would freak out thinking about the kid in the picture. Meanwhile calling it "wireless" seems to make it ok because we're all exposed to "wireless" with our wifi and wireless phones. In the end it's all radio with all it's pluses and minuses.
XorNot 12y ago
The goal of wearables is a focus on the self not the environment - i.e. my digital environment extends out from me, I don't configure my environment to project it onto me. It's interesting technology, but in a totally different domain to wearables.
cmelbye 12y ago
"But events such as Fitbit's recent recall of more than 1 million fitness bands over user skin irritations," Weird that they pointed this out as a flaw in wearable technology. Isn't that just poor choice in material? Seems like a solved problem to me.
- SoftwareMaven 12y ago
  When you are trying to hype the Next Big Thing(tm) it helps to denigrate the current big thing. Also, how big a deal the FitBit recall is is a question of how impirtant that material is to their sensors. Besides for little 3 month old Annie, you don't want to have to strap something on her.

59 points by msolujic 12y ago

aw3c2 12y ago

Direct link: http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/could-wireless-replace-wearables http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/could-wireless-replace-wearab...

dang 12y ago
Thanks. We changed it from http://gigaom.com/2014/06/13/mit-can-now-track-a-heart-rate-through-a-wall-with-wi-fi-signals/ http://gigaom.com/2014/06/13/mit-can-now-track-a-heart-rate-....

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

reitanqild 12y ago

Let me guess this can have a wide range of applications outside of baby monitoring as well...

spacefight 12y ago
Did you mean "baby making" monitoring? ;)
- XorNot 12y ago
  Just as illegal as when you try it with a thermal camera?

mattgibson 12y ago

So someone could make that motion tracker thing out of Alien, which works through walls, just using wifi and an LCD screen? I want one. Where's the app? Actually, reading the original paper, it needs quite a bulky antenna array, looking like a TV aerial (photo on page 3: http://18.7.29.232/bitstream/handle/1721.1/86299/MIT-CSAIL-TR-2014-008.pdf?sequence=1 http://18.7.29.232/bitstream/handle/1721.1/86299/MIT-CSAIL-T...) I still want one.

Nanzikambe 12y ago

I see the future of purchasing intent based analytic solutions, and it is scary! Now in store mechanisms will not only determine the customer's intent and object/area of interest (this is the current "big thing"), but assess heart rate and infer excitement too! There you are, beset by a horde of sales people who recoil in horror when they find your elevated heart rate is the wrong kind of excitement, making the potential sale an awkward one: "Arghh! Get back! Get back! He's in the adult section!" We live in interesting times.

lotsofmangos 12y ago

I read somewhere ages ago about researchers measuring pulse and respiration of a mobile phone user from the data available to a cellular base station.

Houshalter 12y ago

Similar, a camera can also be sufficient to measure heart rate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA5QVm8M9PE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA5QVm8M9PE The method is actually quite interesting. By exaggerating slight changes in color you can actually visually see someone's pulse (and other small changes in the environment.)

deefourd 12y ago
Yep, the main difference is that wireless also works through walls, through a bed cover, if the person is facing away from the device, etc.
ntoshev 12y ago
I wonder if this technology will eventually become good enough to measure the heart rate of lying politicians from just video records. Bill Clinton would make an excellent example. Makeup might fool it though.
- SoftwareMaven 12y ago
  You don't need to name a politician to imply lying. Naming one you believed didn't lie would be more interesting. The problem may be similar to the lie detector problem: if so much of what you say is false and, in some way, you really believe it, it may be indistinguishable from the truth.

btbuildem 12y ago

Shudder to think of the military applications of this

higherpurpose 12y ago
With autonomous robots.

kator 12y ago

Isn't this just RADAR applied at higher resolutions and indoors? I'm sure they've done some really interesting stuff if you dig deep but this doesn't seem like "Wireless" as much as it's transmitting and observing radio reflections[1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar

gitah 12y ago
The article mentioned that there was a ton of noise and the researchers had to use customer filters to remove them. I wonder how well this technology would work in the real world. There will be a lot more interference and random, unexpected obstacles than in a lab environment.
- kator 12y ago
  I guess I object to calling it "Wireless" when it's really just RADAR. It feels like they're trying to use the term wireless to make it less innocuous? I mean if they said they were working on High Resolution hand-held RADAR systems then the public would freak out thinking about the kid in the picture. Meanwhile calling it "wireless" seems to make it ok because we're all exposed to "wireless" with our wifi and wireless phones. In the end it's all radio with all it's pluses and minuses.

XorNot 12y ago

The goal of wearables is a focus on the self not the environment - i.e. my digital environment extends out from me, I don't configure my environment to project it onto me. It's interesting technology, but in a totally different domain to wearables.

cmelbye 12y ago

"But events such as Fitbit's recent recall of more than 1 million fitness bands over user skin irritations," Weird that they pointed this out as a flaw in wearable technology. Isn't that just poor choice in material? Seems like a solved problem to me.

SoftwareMaven 12y ago
When you are trying to hype the Next Big Thing(tm) it helps to denigrate the current big thing. Also, how big a deal the FitBit recall is is a question of how impirtant that material is to their sensors. Besides for little 3 month old Annie, you don't want to have to strap something on her.