Wild new Wi-Fi routers turn your home network into a security radar

The link to the wivi research is to a 2013 article, so that took a while!

I had a HW assignment in 2017 to do this, specifically we were given raw wifi signals and told to determine how many people were in the room. We did it by detecting breath rate of each person with the MUSIC spectral algorithm. For that challenge there ended up being 6 people in the room, all with slightly different breath rate (attenuating the signal as their chest expanded).

> It might sound a little bit creepy from a privacy perspective, but Gamgee insists that all motion data is processed and stored on the routers themselves, and never in the cloud.

This seems deceptive. Sure, the data may be processed and stored locally, but if the routers themselves may be accessed remotely (e.g., by Gamgee, if the routers are compliant with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TR-069), then the fact that the data isn't stored in the cloud is a moot point.

It will be interesting to see how well it actually works. I would like the idea of being able to track where my cats are and what they are doing. And more importantly, find them when the fire alarm starts going off...

I could also see some interesting use cases of this with home automation, particularly with lights and being able to say that someone is actually in a room instead of just sensing motion (see: cats).

That being said, I do not like the severe potential for abuse and privacy issues here. Given that it can identify specific people, I have to imagine this is a bit more detailed than just a human sized blob? Could it theoretically identify what you are doing, could it theoretically give you a real time view of someone (or multiple people). Even if not super detailed it could still give you an idea of what is going on.

I could see this particularly problematic in apartment buildings.

I see they decided to pick a name that sounds like a million trashy items on Amazon. Gamgee? Should at least be in all caps. I can see it on Amazon now: "GAMGEE Ultra WiFi Security Detection Intruder 5ghz Alarm Mesh Net Plug-and-Play EZ-Config Router with Antenna"

i don't think this technology new. beeen using wifi access points that have this feature for the past 2 years (by a company called plume). it doesn't differentiate between individuals but its smart enough to ignore pets and to know when your smartphone is out of wifi range that you are not home and send you notifications for movements inside your home.

I wonder how good the resolution is on this. Can our neighbours use it to watch my family in our home?

Can a Faraday cage be tuned to certain wavelengths, e.g. to allow AM/FM/cell service but block WiFi?

Sounds like I'm done upgrading my WAPs for the foreseeable future.

When is this coming to businesses so that employers can track employees time? "Over the last month you've spent a combined 4 hours on returning from breaks and lunches, and will be debited one half a vacation day"

Hypothetically, I am not sure I want this company to know when it is sexy time.

For anyone actually interested in this technology, it's something you can do on your own with nothing more than an ESP32.

I've seen research papers on using this method to do gesture detection as well.

IMO this product makes a lot more sense without the router/wifi portion. Consumers don’t care how the thing works, it’s beneficial enough for many to have a security system like this.

Pros: this is just like the Dark Knight! Cons: privacy nightmare

So now soldiers need to have a router mounted on their helmet in close quarters?