Technical Seminar On

- Seeing through walls using Wi-Fi

Presented by:
Liju P Thomas
1HK10EC030
 CONTENTS
Introduction.
Challenges faced in designing Wi-Vi
 Flash Effect.
 Tracking Human movements.
Methods used to overcome the challenges.
Implementation.
Results.
Advantages and limitations.
Applications
Conclusion and Future Scope
 - Wireless Device
- Captures moving
objects behind the
- Uses Wi-Fi signals wall
- Through Wall
in ISM
Imaging
band(2.4Ghz)
- Relatively Low
- Typically Wi-Fi
power
Hardware
- Low Cost

Wi-Vi
INTRODUCTION
- Low Bandwidth

- Two modes of use: - It is 3 antenna MIMO Device

- Image moving - Two transmitting and one
objects behind the receiving antenna.
wall - Limits itself to a 20 MHz-
- Gesture based wide Wi-Fi channel, and
interface avoids ultra-wide band
solutions
 KEY IDEA

Wi-Vi
Device
Challenges Faced in Designing Wi-Vi
 Challenge #1: “Flash” Effect
 RF signals penetrate walls:
• Reflect off objects on other side of wall
• Distinguish reflectors by their arrival times

 At low bandwidth:
• Wall reflection much stronger than reflections coming from behind
the wall.
• Flash effect: wall reflection saturates the ADC
Challenges Faced in Designing Wi-Vi

 Challenge #2: Identifying and tracking Humans

Traditional System: Array of Spaced Antennas

 Previous attempts to track moving targets through
walls have done so using an array of spaced antennas.
 This would be too expensive and bulky.

Angle of Arrival
How Can We Eliminate the Wall’s Reflection?
 Wi-Vi uses interference nulling to cancel both the wall reflections and the direct signal
from the transmitting to the receiving antenna, hence increasing its sensitivity to the
reflections of interest.

NULLING TO REMOVE THE FLASH

 MIMO systems can pre-code their transmissions such that the signal received at a
particular antenna is cancelled.
 This property can be tailored to eliminate the flash effect as well as the direct signal from
the transmitting to the receiving antenna, thereby enabling Wi-Vi to capture the
reflections from objects of interest with minimal interference.
 At a high level, Wi-Vi’s nulling procedure can be divided into three phases:
• Initial nulling
• Power boosting
• Iterative nulling
Algorithm for Wi-Vi Nulling
MIMO Nulling
h1
X

p = -h1’ / h2‘
px
h2 y = h1‘ x + h2‘px

Static objects (wall, furniture, People move, therefore

etc.) have constant channels their channels change
y = h1‘ x + h2‘(- h1‘/ h2‘)x0 y = H1’ x + H2’(- h1‘/ h2‘)x
Not Zero
How Can We track the movement of Humans?
ISAR – Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar

 Inverse synthetic aperture radar uses the movement of the target

to emulate an antenna array.
 In ISAR, there is only one receive antenna; hence, at any point in
time, we capture a single measurement. since the target is
moving, consecutive measurements in time emulate an inverse
antenna array – i.e., it is as if the moving human is imaging the
Wi-Vi device.
 By processing such consecutive measurements using standard
antenna array beam steering, Wi-Vi can identify the spatial
direction of the human.
Tracking Motion
RF source

θ Direction of
reflection

Antenna Array
Tracking Motion Direction of motion

θ
At any point in time, we
have a single measurement

Antenna Array
Tracking Motion Direction of motion

θ
Direction
of motion
Antenna Array
 IMPLEMENTATION
Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP N210)

Designed and sold

by Ettus Research

USRPs connect to a Comparatively

host computer through inexpensive
a high-speed USB or hardware platform
Gigabit Ethernet link, for software radio

Products are open Commonly used by

source USRP models also research labs and
integrate the general universities etc.
functionality of a host
computer with an
embedded processor
 IMPLEMENTATION
• Wide bandwidth
transceiver
• Power output: Upto
10mW
• Noise Figure: 5dB
MIMO nulling is
implemented directly
into the UHD driver, so Dual-band
that it is performed in operation
real-time.

• LP0965 directional SBX Transceiver

antennas
• 3 USRP’s are Capable of MIMO
connected to an Application areas include: and provides upto
external clock and  Wi-Fi 40 MHz bandwidth
they act as one  Wi-Max
MIMO system.  S-band transceivers
 2.4 GHz ISM band
transceivers
Wi-Vi Setup & Working

 Any objects that the signals hit including the wall create identical
reflections, they too are cancelled out by this nulling effect.
 Only those reflections that change between the two signals, such
as those from a moving object, arrive back at the receiver.
 Tracking of 2 humans Tracking of 3 humans

 Tracking of multiple people can be done by Smoothed Music Algorithm.

 This algorithm computes w x w correlation matrix R[n]
 It then performs an Eigen decomposition of R[n] to remove the noise and keep
the strongest Eigen vectors, which in our case correspond to the few moving
humans, as well as the DC value.
Through-Wall Gesture-Based Communication

 For a human to transmit a message to a computer wirelessly,

they typically has to carry a wireless device.
 Wi-Vi can enable a human who does not carry any wireless
device to communicate commands or short messages to a
receiver using simple gestures.
 Wi-Vi designates a pair of gestures as a ‘0’ bit and a ‘1’ bit.
 At this stage, Wi-Vi’s interface is still very basic, yet we
believe that future advances in through-wall technology can
render this interface more expressive.
 Gesture Encoding

Gestures as detected by Wi-Vi: Gestures as Angles:

 Gesture Decoding
Output of matched filter: Decoded bits:

Accuracy of Gesture Decoding as a Function of Distance

 Wi-Vi device pointed at a closed room with 6” hollow walls
supported by steel frames can distinguish between 0, 1, 2,
and 3 moving humans in the room. Computed over 80 trials
with 8 human subjects, Wi-Vi achieves an accuracy of 100%,
100%,90%, and 85% respectively in each of these cases.

Detect movements behind opaque

structural obstructions

A single person sending gesture

Results of Wi-Vi based messages, Wi-Vi correctly
Using USRP N210 decodes all messages performed at
It also removes clutter from all distances equal to or smaller than
static reflectors, rather than 5 meters.
just one wall.
This includes other walls in the
environments as well as
furniture inside and outside the The decoding accuracy decreases to 75% at distances
imaged room. of 8 meters, and the device stops detecting gestures
beyond 9 meters.
 Advantages Limitations
 Wi-Vi is relatively a low-power, low-cost, low-  Display has very low resolution.
bandwidth, and accessible to average users.
 We cannot detect humans behind
 Wi-Vi requires only few MHz of bandwidth
and operates in the same range as Wi-Fi. It concrete walls thicker than 8".
operates in ISM band.
 To achieve a narrow beam the human
 Wi-Vi can perform through-wall imaging
without access to any device the other side of the needs to move by about 4 wavelengths
wall. (i.e., about 50 cm).
 Wi-Vi employs signals whose wavelengths are
12.5 cm.
 Extend human vision beyond the visible
electromagnetic range, allowing us to detect
objects in the dark or in smoke.
Law Enforcement Emergency Situations

Applications

Personal Security Smart Sensing

User Interface Design Intruder Detection
Applications

Gaming
Conclusion
 Wi-Vi, a wireless technology that uses Wi-Fi signals to detect moving
humans behind walls and in closed rooms. In contrast to previous
systems, which are targeted for the military, Wi-Vi enables small cheap
see-through-wall devices that operate in the ISM band, rendering them
feasible to the general public, without carrying any transmitting device.

Future Scope
Wi-Vi could be built into a Smartphone or a special handheld device.

Evolution of seeing humans through denser building material and with a

longer range.

High quality images.

REFERENCES
[1] Fadel Adib and Dina Katabi, "See through wall with WI-FI", Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. In ACM SIGCOMM, 2013.
[2] Q. Pu, S. Gupta, S. Gollakota, and S. Patel, "Whole-home gesture
recognition using wireless signals", University of Washington.
[3] T. Ralston, G. Charvat, and J. Peabody. “Real-time through-wall imaging
using an ultra-wideband multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) phased
array radar system.” In IEEE ARRAY, 2010.
[4] “Advanced trends in wireless communication” Edited by Dr. Mutamed
Khatib
[5] "Seeing through walls"- MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=H5xmo7iJ7KA.
[6] www.people.csail.mit.edu/fadel/wivi