MIT Has Taught the Machines How to Use Wifi to See People Through Walls

The Machines now have X-ray vision. A new piece of software has been trained to use wifi signals -- which pass through walls, but bounce off living tissue -- to monitor the movements, breathing, and heartbeats of humans on the other side of those walls. The researchers say this new tech's promise lies in areas like remote healthcare, particularly elder care, but it's hard to ignore slightly more dystopian applications. While it's easy to think of this new technology as a futuristic Life Alert monitor, it's worth noting that at least one member of the research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology behind the innovation has previously received funding from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Another also presented work at a security research symposium curated by a c-suite member of In-Q-Tel, the CIA's high-tech venture capital firm.