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Wi-Fi could help Identify when you’re Struggling to Breathe

Wi-Fi could help identify when you're struggling to breathe
Jason Coder sets up an experiment in an anechoic chamber to use Wi-Fi to sense breathing. The manikin is used to train medical professionals, and simulates a number of breathing scenarios. Credit: R. Jacobson/NIST

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...

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