Events Calendar

EE-Systems Seminar

Speaker: Dr. Neal Patwari , University of Utah

Talk Title: Locate people without radio tags: Device‐free localization in wireless networks

Abstract: Abstract: Radio localization applications in sensor networks assume that the person to‐be¬located wears a radio tag, either a receiver or transmitter. We show that the tag is not necessary, except for identification. By measuring the changes in received signal strength (RSS) on static wireless links in the environment, we perform device‐free localization (DFL), i.e., estimation of the location of changes in the physical environment, and thus, inference of the locations of people in the environment. Such localization can be done when the network nodes are outside of a building, and the people are inside of the building, and thus have application for emergency responders arriving at a building that is dangerous to enter. Since static wireless networks are ubiquitous in indoor environments, we expect DFL using RSS to be useful in secure facilities, in which the locations of un‐tagged (potentially unauthorized) people should be monitored. While wideband radar provides similar capabilities, the use of RSS opens the door for DFL applications built using standard wireless networks. This talk will describe 1) new multipath channel fading models which provide the basis for our ability to accurately estimate a person's location; 2) algorithms for RSS‐based device‐free localization; and 3) lessons learned from prototype development and deployment. We will discuss the unanswered questions and future research directions in RSS‐based DFL.

Biography: Bio: Neal Patwari received the B.S. (1997) and M.S. (1999) degrees from Virginia Tech, and the Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2005), all in Electrical Engineering. He was a research engineer in Motorola Labs, Florida, between 1999 and 2001. Since 2006, he has been at the University of Utah, where he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with an adjunct appointment in the School of Computing. He directs the Sensing and Processing Across Networks (SPAN) Lab, which performs research at the intersection of statistical signal processing and wireless networking. His research interests are in radio channel signal processing, in which radio channel measurements are used to improve security and networking and to perform localization. Neal has been involved with experimental prototypes of sensor networks deployed for centralized and distributed sensor localization, radio tomographic imaging, and secret key establishment. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2008 and the 2009 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Magazine Paper Award. He is an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing.

Host: Bhaskar Krishnamachari

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) -

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Shane Goodoff