What is "Wi-Fi Sensing" that turns wireless LAN into a sensor?

Wi-Fi sensing is a technology that leverages Wi-Fi to capture information about people, animals, objects, and specific locations, enabling applications such as user presence detection, environmental monitoring in smart buildings, and remote health monitoring.

Unlike infrared-based sensing, it has the advantage of working in non-line-of-sight conditions and covering a wide area, and unlike video-based sensing, it works in poor visibility and lighting conditions and protects user privacy. In addition, Wi-Fi is low-cost, widely available, and a standardized technology that is interoperable across multiple vendors, supporting data communication, ranging, and sensing on a single chipset.

The feasibility of Wi-Fi sensing has been evaluated and demonstrated in diverse applications such as gesture recognition, people counting, and sleep detection. There are also commercial Wi-Fi sensing solutions on the market that provide features such as residential security, elderly care, home automation, motion detection in the home, and presence and posture recognition. Currently, Wi-Fi sensing relies on proprietary implementations with limited interoperability as IEEE 802 does not define any dedicated functionality for sensing, but it is expected to be included in the Wi-Fi (wireless LAN) standard as "IEEE 802.11bf" in March 2025.

Synaptics provides wireless connectivity solutions for IoT applications, with a proven track record worldwide. These products offer low power consumption, long range, high reliability and interoperability. The latest Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.x, Zigbee/Thread, ULE, and L1+L5 dual-frequency GPS are included in the product lineup.

Synaptics' Wi-Fi SoCs output CSI data through specific APIs. CSI provides information about the channel the signal is propagating through. Obstacles in the environment cause reflections, diffraction, scattering, etc. These subtle changes in CSI can be exploited to detect the presence of people and other changes in the environment.

Synaptics Wi-Fi Sensing Features

- Triple connectivity: Allows seamless communication with WLAN, BT/BLE and 802.15.4 networks

- Low power consumption: Continuous sensing possible

- Internal HW bus for Wi-Fi sensing: Ensures stable Wi-Fi streaming without interference from Wi-Fi sensing

- In-house developed HPD and CPD algorithms: Synaptics' AI team developed in-house algorithms for presence detection and respiration

- Proven Performance: Synaptics products rank #1 in benchmarks of 3rd party Wi-Fi sensing software companies

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