We’ve talked about plenty of ways to boost your Wi-Fi signal and expand coverage, but science news blog New Scientist points to a study conducted at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City that has found your movement and breathing affect your signal as well.
Photo by Sakala (Shutterstock)
Neal Patwari, who conducted the study, tested a variety of consumer wireless devices to see what kind of impact humans had on the signal. He found that during inhalation, the wireless signals bent around his chest. This caused them to travel farther and become less powerful. While this research was conducted to find an unobtrusive, yet still accurate means of measuring a person’s breathing rate, it’s interesting to know that even the simple act of inhaling can reduce the power of your Wi-Fi transmission. Chances are you’re not going to hurt your Wi-Fi signal too much by staying alive, but these findings do suggest further implications of how other obstructions in your home — particularly ones that move — can affect your wireless signal.
Additionally, for those of you DIY-ers out there, imagine hacking a few Wi-Fi routers to track movement in a home (for security purposes, of course). If you’ve got the know-how, that could turn out to be a pretty amazing (multi-)weekend project.
Wireless network can watch your breathing [New Scientist via Business Insider]
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