Device That Sees Through Walls

MIT Researchers Develop Device That Sees Through Walls

Thanks to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, the power of x-ray vision is becoming a reality. A team has created a radar system that allows humans to see through walls.

Generally, 99 percent of radar waves bounce off concrete walls. Out of the one percent that aren’t blocked, another 99 percent don’t make it back through.

The MIT team, led by researchers John Peabody and Gregory Charvat used S-band radar waves, which are similar in wavelength to a Wi-Fi signal, meaning they’re fairly short. While that length means more signals lost, the team developed an amplifier device to push the radars through walls that can work at a range of up to 60 feet away from the wall. The device is comprised of various antennas organized in two rows: eight on the top row that work as receivers and 13 on the bottom that are transmitters.

However, even with amplifiers, a wall made of any solid material will show up as the brightest spot. To amend this, the team used an analog crystal filter to remove the wall from the image that shows up in the receiver.

 At about eight and a half feet long, Charvat and Peabody envision the device deployed in urban combat situations.

“[The size], we believe, is a sweet spot because we think it would be mounted on a vehicle of some kind,” Charvat said.

The system provides real-time video at 10.8 frames per second and can detect slight movement, but not objects that are still, such as furniture.

“If you’re in a high-risk combat situation, you don’t want one image every 20 minuytes, and you don’t want to have to stand right next to a potentially dangerous building,” Charvat also said.