Wireless networks are typically associated with internet access in corporate networks or entertainment services like Netflix. Yet, WiFi’s application extends far beyond just streaming data to electronics. Now that a common household owns about 10 smart devices on average, it has set up WiFi sensing to take the stage.
WiFi sensing is a type of short-range passive radar technology, and it’s surprisingly accurate. It can easily pick up an object’s movement from room to room and zero in on gestures for activity classification. For large events, a sensor could be placed at the entrance to count visitors. Hospitals and elderly care facilities can use WiFi sensors to monitor patient movement and biometric data like heartbeats, breathing, and limb movements.
Simply put, WiFi sensing measures how WiFi signals interact with movement. By pinging the environment, WiFi sensing systems can easily track locations and movement based on how the signals are reflected and deflected.
WiFi sensing systems communicate in either infrastructure mode or ad-hoc mode. In infrastructure mode, each node in the sensing system communicates with a central access point (AP). In ad-hoc mode, each of the nodes communicates with one another directly.
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