"Cognitive In The News"
September 10, 2020

Wi-Fi Sensing Adds Motion Detection and Gesture Recognition to Your Wireless Network

Thanks to the newest smart camera systems and their powerful analytics applications, IDC says the video surveillance camera market will grow to $44 billion by 2025. But regardless of how many cool features those devices integrate, many privacy-conscious consumers are more comfortable with them standing guard outside, rather than peering in.

Wi-Fi sensing offers a compelling alternative for keeping an eye on the kids after school, caring for elderly relatives remotely, and collecting biometric measurements with a bit of anonymity. By processing signals from the myriad Wi-Fi devices transmitting and receiving all around you, Wi-Fi sensing detects environmental changes. Depending on the application, those changes might include motion when there shouldn’t be any, triggering a security alert. Or if there is no movement when grandma should be stirring, a notification might get pushed to her care provider.

The technology behind Wi-Fi sensing is relatively new, and there aren’t any standards governing its implementation. As a result, gaps in today’s infrastructure limit the range of what Wi-Fi sensing can do, leaving a lot of untapped value waiting for industry consensus. Current approaches to Wi-Fi sensing like Cognitive System’s 2017-era Aura and Linksys’ Aware platform proved the technology works. But the best is clearly yet to come.

KEY POINTS

  • Wi-Fi sensing builds upon the mechanisms already used in wireless networks to detect environmental changes.
  • Possible use cases of Wi-Fi sensing include motion/presence detection, security, elder care, home automation, and gesture recognition.
  • Work is underway to standardize Wi-Fi sensing, which will pave the way for increased functionality, interoperability, and reliability.

To read the full article on Venture Beat, click here.