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Comment by Spivak | Hacker News Reader

Well, because it is a feature. It's really cool and I already have ideas for projects I want to do with it. An omnidirectional way to map an entire space that doesn't have the limitations of or require cameras is incredible. And one that I can potentially use to map myself as I walk around. It's basically the end game of motion controls.

The popularity will explode the moment someone makes a commercial where someone is cooking with something messy and using their phone without ever touching it.

It's the people who make or break it. "This technology is too dangerous and must be destroyed, but hold on I need to use it first because it's really useful" doesn't feel like the strongest condemnation.

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The only result will be that the router of my neighbor, provided by his ISP, will happily reports the inside of my apartment. Sorry, I can be excited for a radar-based controller for a console, but as part of wifi, I can't really find any legit use

I, maybe naively, assumed this capability will also comes to handhelds but yeah if it's only for stationary APs then it's kinda lame.

Beamforming around moving (or even static) obstacles? Integrated motion sensing with fewer false positives for smart bulbs, doorbells, whatever? Or more realistically, your TV can make sure you don't skip the commercials. I probably wouldn't use that stuff myself either, but it's interesting to think about.

Why would I care that my neighbor knows we're home and moving around? If they really wanna creep on us, they can already use IR cameras or audio amplification or laser mics or whatever.

> If they really wanna creep on us, they can already use IR cameras or audio amplification or laser mics or whatever.

There's always a more sophisticated way to do something bad. Why would that be a good reason to lower the bar for doing it?

This is the first time I've seen someone use this question in defense of privacy, instead of against it.

Walls of homes are usually insulated enough to make an IR camera useless unless it's inside the home. It would be good for identifying cracks that heat can seap through though. Surveillance by laser microphones can easily be mitigated by curtains or blinds. Both of those also require the person spying to intentionally use them to spy. There is no legal commercial device that could prevent your neighbor's Xfinity Hotspot from selling what you do in your own home to Facebook/Google to use to target you with ads.

It would come off as a bit paranoid, but chicken wire would block wifi signals.

It is commonly used for older plastered facades. Maybe there will be a resurgence.

It’s used for stucco as well, which is everywhere.

surveillance into private places is illegal. you can't film in someone's window, you can't wifi vision through someones walls. whether or not that is prevented from happening by manufacturers and that the law is enforced depends on a lot of things

You can take infrared photos currently of someone's house and use that in court

with a warrant many kinds of search are possible. in normal circumstances, that's illegal

The problem is not that you can buy a device that does this. The problem is that they'll put it in devices you can't easily avoid buying, don't control the firmware of or which have an abominable security record.

It's fine if I can take live 3D radar images of the inside of my bedroom. Not fine if someone else can.

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