Most of us don’t pay much attention to the WiFi routers in our homes. It’s an innocuous technology that we all take for granted, and we don’t really think about unless it’s not working properly. However, WiFi has a unique property that might make you reconsider a land line.
Like many frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum, it can penetrate walls, which is what makes WiFi such a good signal for connecting our electronic devices to the internet. But unlike most signals, WiFi can also be used to map every object in your home from afar. That’s because some of the signal will reflect off of objects rather than passing through them. This property has led to the creation of devices that can receive those bouncing signals, and allow the user to effectively see through walls.
This technology has been around for a few years, but was pretty rudimentary. Recently researchers in Germany have taken it a whole new level.
German scientists have found a way to exploit this property to take holograms, or 3D photographs, of objects inside a room — from outside it.
“It can basically scan a room with someone’s Wi-Fi transmission,” Philipp Holl, a 23-year-old undergraduate physics student at the Technical University of Munich, told Business Insider…
…Holl says the technology is only in its prototype stage and has limited resolution, but he is excited about its promise.
“If there’s a cup of coffee on a table, you may see something is there, but you couldn’t see the shape,” Holl says. “But you could make out the shape of a person, or a dog on a couch. Really any object that’s more than 4 centimeters in size.”
Holl says that his method only utilizes two antennas that can pick up WiFi signals in a given area, and those antennas can be as small as what you’d find in a smartphone. One antenna is supposed to be a stationary reference point, while the other moves around. As it moves, the signals are fed into a computer to create multiple 2d images, which Holl’s software can then stack together to form a single 3D hologram.
As is often the case when a company or an inventor comes up with an idea that may have military or surveillance applications, Holl is quick to point out how his technology could be used to save lives. However, I think we all know what this would really be used for.
The applications for Holl’s Wi-Fi holography, he says, are pretty expansive. Adding an array of reference antennas, say, inside a truck, might help rescue workers detect people in rubble left by an earthquake — or spy agencies see whether anyone is home.
“You could probably use a drone to map out the inside of an entire building in 20 to 30 seconds,” he said.
If used by the government, this method could pick up a few stray WiFi signals in your home, and give the authorities a detailed, 3D holographic image of every significant object behind your walls, including you. It doesn’t sound very cumbersome either. It’s conceivable that all one would need is a couple of small antennas; one of which would be attached to a quadcopter, and the right software.
In other words, soon the government is going to have a creepy and effective new way to invade your privacy, and it’s pretty convenient.
Read More:
WiFi Device Can See Through Walls: Track a Human by Using Body as an Antenna Array
WiFi Can See You Through Walls: “Even Within Your House, Where You Go Can Reveal a Lot”
Are You A Threat? Police Software Scans your Social Media: “Very Dangerous For a Citizen”
Law Enforcement Turns to NSA Surveillance Data to Track Crime: “It Was only a Matter of Time”
Really? Another reason to live in the middle of nowhere, away from psychopaths who don’t know where to draw the line. People will reject technology. It is being advanced by young people who think: because they can, they should.
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One more reason that the “Internet of Things” must be stopped by privacy laws !!! 🙂
But it’s technology that will keep us safe from terrorism so I guess it’s ok
/sarcasm
I always disable WiFi on my router and laptops (Bluetooth, too) and run my Lan over Ethernet.
It’s too much of a security risk as it is.
Another “mentally” disturbed person blows himself and 22 people up (including children) in Manchester UK:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-40010124
The “Religion of Peace” strikes again?
WE ARE THE RELIGION OF PEACE [BOOM] [SARCASM]
WE ARE THE RELIGION OF PIECES(BOOM)!!!
What they fail to point out is that you don’t need your own wifi in the house. The system can use stray wifi signals that are going through your house from other people’s wifi.
The only way to stop it is to make your entire house a Faraday cage with mesh in the walls.
I’m gonna gut my house starting to today……John Goodman is coming over to help.
Yep. Or they bring their own WiFi signals with them.
Archivist, in order to tap into those stray wifi signals you’ve got to have the password if its secured.
They don’t have to login to the wifi, just see the radio signals. They might even bring their own transmitters just in case you don’t have wifi.
Gonna line the walls with aluminum like those rfid wallets so they can’t see in. Seriously we need to push lawmakers to protect privacy by being ahead of new technologies. If this is a future reality make a law that a warrant is needed to do this. Some perv will be watching women kids. Creepy shit. So sad it’s coming to this.
BWHAHAHAHA PASS A LAW? LOL
The precursor to the motion trackers in Aliens?
Will a Faraday cage really deflect the WiFi signal? You may want to construct one to hide your guns and ammo, and to conceal yourself. Or maybe some way to jam the WiFi signal. This means even your bug out location could be vulnerable. This can be a good thing and also a bad thing.
Yes, a Faraday cage blocks all radio signals.
Ok I’ll bite, how is it a good thing?
If we used it on Congress we could prove what we already feel. The lights are on but nobody is home. Only things that control or kill are being developed now.
January 20, 2015 New police radars can ‘see’ inside homes
At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies quietly deployed radars that let them effectively see inside homes, with little notice to the courts or the public.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/01/19/police-radar-see-through-walls/22007615/
June 16, 2016 Supreme Court Ruling: Police Have No Duty to Protect the General Public
However, did you know that the government, and specifically law enforcement, does not have any duty to protect the general public? Based on the headline and this information, you might assume this is a new, landmark decision. However, it has long been the court’s stance that, essentially, the American people are responsible for taking case of their own personal safety.
http://tribunist.com/news/supreme-court-ruling-police-have-no-duty-to-protect-the-general-public/
The USA Today link is not working but this one does for now.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/police-radar-device-homes-article-1.2085166
Time to invent new walls. Something that will stop tornadoes, bullets, and peeping Toms.
I have aluminum siding on my house. I see 8 wifi signals outside with my laptop but only one inside! (mine) So you can block others from having access to your wifi. Also, the insulation board with the aluminum sheeting on the side blocks the signals. The disadvantage is that I can’t sit on my deck on a nice day and connect to the internet. Oh well. (maybe I can figure the password of one of my 8 neighbor’s wifi!) 🙂
BWHAHAHA you do understand your not blobking anyone from access to your wifi by what you said…. lol you think your blocking their wifi with your siding? Lol if your wifi gets out…. do the math….
Imagine the geeky couldn’t get laid if they glued $100 bills on them and walked into a whore house that have IQs of 150 and are employed by the NSA. Think for a moment that a perk of the job isn’t some prevision time? Hell they would unofficially “allow” it to have something over their head.
perversion not prevision……. damn spell check.