Inclusively | Can Wi-Fi sensing help elderly and disabled people?

Inclusivity starts at home. Being able to live independently at home is, for many of us, fundamental to our quality of life. How can technology help us live on our own more safely and give our caretakers better tools to assist us?

We talked to Saibal Chakraburtty, Director of Product Management at Cognitive Systems, about how Wi-Fi sensing can do this.

Wi-Fi sensing uses the Wi-Fi radio signal to detect motion within the Wi-Fi network coverage area. Unlike location-based services, sensing detects the motion of people, pets or objects that have no connected device or sensor, making it very inobtrusive to deploy and operate. In a home environment, it is more respectful of privacy boundaries and does not require a smart home separate infrastructure.

By tracking human motion in a residential environment, Wi-Fi sensing can detect anomalies (e.g., your mother did not get up this morning, or your father keeps going out of the house for hours at unusual hours) or other patterns that may alert caretakers or trigger an emergency response. We talked about what the technology can do, how it can be deployed and operated, how can Wi-Fi sensing services be deployed, and what are the use cases for elderly and disabled people who want to live on their own.