WiFi Presence Detection via Signal Pre-processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing user presence detection systems, such as radar-based systems, require additional equipment, increasing complexity and cost, while also not effectively utilizing commonly available wireless technology for presence detection.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system using wireless technology, specifically WiFi signals, to detect user presence by receiving data signals from WiFi-node-to-Access-Point links or node-to-node links, performing signal pre-processing, and extracting features to determine user presence in a defined area.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If radar-based presence detection systems are used, then presence detection capability is achieved, but system complexity and cost increase due to additional equipment requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by enabling WiFi access points to perform dual functions: standard wireless communication and presence detection. The system utilizes existing WiFi infrastructure (Access Points and client devices) that already exists in the environment, making them serve multiple purposes. This eliminates the need for dedicated radar equipment while maintaining presence detection capability, directly resolving the contradiction between detection reliability and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service by having the WiFi network infrastructure serve its own additional function for presence detection. The Access Points and client devices use their own existing wireless signals to detect presence, without requiring external dedicated sensing equipment. This approach reduces system complexity by making the existing infrastructure self-sufficient for both communication and detection tasks.
2Reliability
If radar-based presence detection systems are used, then presence detection capability is achieved, but system cost increases due to additional equipment requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by enabling WiFi access points to perform dual functions: standard wireless communication and presence detection. The system utilizes existing WiFi infrastructure (Access Points and client devices) that already exists in the environment, making them serve multiple purposes. This eliminates the need for dedicated radar equipment while maintaining presence detection capability, directly resolving the contradiction between detection reliability and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces expensive radar-based detection equipment with inexpensive, widely-available commodity WiFi devices. By using standard WiFi Access Points and client devices that consumers already possess, the system achieves presence detection at minimal additional cost, effectively applying the principle of using cheap, readily-available components instead of expensive specialized equipment.
3Device complexity
If commodity WiFi infrastructure is used for presence detection, then system cost and complexity are reduced, but signal processing challenges increase due to environmental interference
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies extraction by isolating and removing unwanted signal components from the WiFi measurements. The system extracts only the relevant presence detection information from the complex WiFi channel state data, separating it from environmental interference and other irrelevant signals. This preprocessing step simplifies the subsequent detection algorithms by working with cleaned, focused data rather than raw complex signals.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary preprocessing layer between the raw WiFi signals and the presence detection algorithm. This intermediary layer includes signal conditioning, filtering, and feature extraction steps that transform the complex, interference-prone WiFi data into a cleaner intermediate representation that is easier to analyze for presence detection, thereby reducing the difficulty of the final detection task.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for user presence detection using wireless technology. A computer-implemented method includes receiving one or more data signals from at least one WiFi-node-to-Access-Point (AP) link or at least one WiFi-node-to-node link, performing a signal pre-processing process on the one or more data signals to generate one or more pre-processed data signals, performing the signal pre-processing process including performing a uniform sampling process, a power normalization process, an anomaly sample removal process, and a filtering process, extracting one or more features using the one or more pre-processed data signals, and using the one or more features to determine whether a user is present in the home and identify a specific room in which the user is located.