Wi-Fi routers continuously broadcast radio frequencies that your
phones, tablets and computers pick up and use to get you online. As the
invisible frequencies travel, they bounce off or pass through everything around
them — the walls, the furniture, and even you. Your movements, even breathing,
slightly alter the signal’s path from the router to your device.
Those interactions don’t interrupt your internet connection, but
they could signal when someone is in trouble. NIST has developed a deep
learning algorithm, called BreatheSmart, that can analyze those minuscule
changes to help determine whether someone in the room is struggling to breathe.
And it can do so with already available Wi-Fi routers and devices. This work
was recently published in IEEE
Access.