Detecting walking speed with wireless signals

And it can be a burglar alarm :-)

I like the research (and the general class of research which is looking at trending changes in measurable activities to understand health) but it creeps me out a bit to realize how much about someone you can learn by combing through their 'digital exhaust' if you will. Sort of their information wake[1] as they move through their daily activities. I saw someone testing a remote thermometer that was pointed at people coming into a health clinic to measure how many people a day passed through the door and were running a fever. Useful? probably, creepy? definitely.

[1] Ripples in the data sphere as people pass much like ripples in the water as a boat passes.

Dina Katabi held an invited talk on WiTrack at SODA this year, it's absolutely incredible what they can do. This technology can not only track movement of people around a flat or house, but also heart rate. There are more details at http://witrack.csail.mit.edu/

similar news: Create 3D models with centimeter precision using a wifi router's signal: https://www.tum.de/en/about-tum/news/press-releases/detail/a... (1 cm precision)

Or you could just, you know, take an average of how long it takes you to walk a known route. This seems like a solution in search of a problem, as well as another way for people to spy on me through my phone.

I figure it's only a matter of time before I start getting unsolicited updates on my sexual performance from third parties based on the amplitude, pitch and frequency of the resulting moans - full report with detailed analytics available for only $9.99.

i think 1-5% change in speed is a lot. its interesting tech but it needs to be more acurate. you can currently use floor sensors and high speed cameras. my experience is from sports though and not elderly care. it would be very nice to use something like this to analyse a football game or athletics.

This reminds me of the gait-tracking tech in the book Little Brother. :/