MIT has developed a way to see and identify people through walls

It may not be the coolest, most futuristic thing to come out of MIT in recent years, but researchers from the institute’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab have developed some interesting software that uses Wi-Fi signals to see people through walls. Using a device called RF-Capture, which is powered by this software, the researchers have not only been able to see people through walls, they’ve been able to identify who that person was with 90% accuracy. 

X-ray vision is a staple of sci-fi films and comic books and now researchers have turned this concept into a reality. Using a wireless transmitter fitted behind a wall, computer scientists have developed a device that can map a nearby room in 3D while scanning for human bodies. Using the signals that bounce and reflect off these people, the device creates an accurate silhouette and can even use this silhouette to identify who that person is. The device is called RF Capture and it was developed by researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). It has long been thought that wireless signals, such as Wi-Fi, can be used to see things that are invisible to the naked eye. With this in mind the researchers have been developing technologies that use wireless signals to track human motion since 2013. As part of its latest research, the team has shown that these technologies can detect gestures and body movements as subtle as the rise and fall of a person’s chest from the other side of a house.