Dina Katabi, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, built a box in her lab that uses wireless signals to track the movement of human bodies through spaces, even through walls, and without the use of any wearables, tracks their health state. Technology review explains that the box transmits a low-power wireless signal throughout a space the size of a one- or two-bedroom apartment (even through walls), and the signal reflects off the people’s bodies. The device then uses machine learning to analyze those reflected signals and extract physiological data, such as heartbeat, breathing, brain-activity. Through the startup Emerald Innovations the box is commercialized, furthermore it is available to biotech and pharmaceutical companies for studies. Katabi said her research found that the device can accurately monitor sleep, including individual sleep stages, in a person’s own bed, with no changes to the way they sleep or what they wear—a big difference from sleep studies today, which typically call for snoozing in a lab setting with a lot of electrodes and wires connected to your body. Because the device would be installed in a home, it could track the resident over time, too, which could be useful for watching sleep-disrupting conditions like Alzheimer’s or depression, she said. While Katabi is currently focused on health-care applications for the data, she’s also considering how it could be used for other things, like fine-tuning your smart home so when you sit on the couch, your smart TV could play your favorite show.
Read more on technologyreview.com or check the website of Emerald.
