Scientists Have Learnt To Identify Breathing Problems By Changes In Wi-Fi Signals

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, USA) have developed a breathing monitoring technology using subtle changes in the Wi-Fi signal. The technology is based on the BreatheSmart algorithm based on artificial intelligence.

Wi-Fi routers continuously broadcast radio frequencies that your phones, tablets, and computers pick up and use to connect to the Internet. When invisible frequencies spread, they bounce or pass through everything around them: walls, furniture, and even you.  Movement and even breathing slightly change the signal path from the router to your device.

Scientists have developed a new way to use existing Wi-Fi routers to measure the breathing rate of a person in a room. In Wi-Fi, “link state information”, or CSI, is a set of signals sent from a device to an access point. The CSI signal sent by the client device is always the same, and the access point that receives the CSI signals knows what it should look like. But as the CSI signals propagate through the environment, they become distorted, bouncing off objects, or losing power. The access point analyzes the amount of distortion to tune and optimize the communication channel.