MIT researchers are working to bring short range radar to the masses. Photo: Flickr/BenFrantzDale.
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The tech works through standard drywall, wooden fences, and even concrete walls, though as you'd expect, the range and accuracy depends on what sort of wall you're trying to look through.X-ray cell phone technology has been discussed before, but past efforts didn't utilize built-in wi-fi transmitters. More recently, researchers at the University College of London developed something similar, but a wi-fi receiver in the room you wanted to survey was also needed in order for it to work. Not so for Katabi's technology, which she'll present at the Sigcomm Conference in Hong Kong in August."The beauty of this is you can be on the outside of the room, you don't ever have to go inside that room, you don't even have to have been in that room in your life," she said.The promise of an easy-to-use, short range radar- or sonar-like device will definitely be useful for law enforcement looking to storm a building, firefighters looking for people in a burning building, and search and rescue operators, but the tech should have use for the layperson as well."People are going to be interested in getting this x-ray power, we all want that," Katabi said. "If I stop at a gas station in a sketchy area and I want to enter the place, I can see if someone is hiding in the back room or if I'm walking around at night, I can see if someone is waiting around a corner or something.""You don't ever have to go inside that room, you don't even have to have been in that room in your life."