Joey Wilson and Neal Patwari have discovered a cheap way of looking through walls. I think this is everyone’s dream. If you are under 14 years old, you simply need to know where mommy keeps your sweets. If you are over 14 and under 20, you should be very curious what other people are doing. If you are over 20, you should wonder how this works; how can you see through walls by using a simple modded wireless network?

It is quite simple frankly! Radio signals are sent and received in a wireless network. These signals vary in a predictable way when the volume of space in which they travel changes. Why would the volume of space change? Well, any movement will have this effect regardless if it is a bird, an object, or a person that is moving. Although it is at the beginning, this technology has potential for huge breakthroughs. Its main advantage is cost. While other systems cost over $100,000, this one can cost as little as $500. The second advantage is its simplicity; it is simple to set up, operate, and maintain.

“We envision a building imaging scenario similar to the following. Emergency responders, military forces, or police arrive at a scene where entry into a building is potentially dangerous. They deploy radio sensors around (and potentially on top of) the building area, either by throwing or launching them, or dropping them while moving around the building. The nodes immediately form a network and self-localize, perhaps using information about the size and shape of the building from a database (eg Google maps) and some known-location coordinates (eg using GPS). Then, nodes begin to transmit, making signal strength measurements on links which cross the building or area of interest. The received signal strength measurements of each link are transmitted back to a base station and used to estimate the positions of moving people and objects within the building,” – Joey Wilson and Neal Patwari.