I have an older house (1950s) and I'd really like to see behind my walls without physically excavating so I can try to run some wires without encountering surprise obstructions. There are tools which use WifI to do detect humans[1] (https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wi-fi-routers-used-to-dete...) [2](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40897828) but I'm looking for a way to use Wifi for more general imaging. There's a paper from 2017 ("Holography of WiFi Radiation)[https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.11...] and many other scholarly papers about object detection via WiFi, but I haven't been able to find any off-the-shelf products/projects that would just build a 3D environmental density map without any object detection. The resolution doesn't have to be great - not looking for millimeter scale features e.g. structural weakness. Is there anything out there that comes close? Given recent archaeological uses of drone LIDAR and satellite tomography, I figure the software for interpreting this kind of data should be pretty robust by now, just maybe it hasn't filtered down to the consumer market.
Ask HN: Any tools to do generic WiFi imaging?
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Re: Ask HN: Any tools to do generic WiFi imaging?
#2Walabot sounds interesting... but here's an article about similar tools:
https://www.doityourself.com/stry/4-tools-that-can-see-throu...
Re: Ask HN: Any tools to do generic WiFi imaging?
#3Walabot sounds interesting... but here's an article about similar tools: https://www.doityourself.com/stry/4-tools-that-can-see-throu...
Walabot DIY 2 in expert mode looks great! Definitely a bit more single-purpose for walls - only works on flat surfaces and probably has trouble w corners. Great suggestion, thanks!
Re: Ask HN: Any tools to do generic WiFi imaging?
#4To me, WiFi is the X in an XY problem. An endoscope can be had for https://www.google.com/search?q=endoscope
Good luck.
Re: Ask HN: Any tools to do generic WiFi imaging?
#5I would like to ask about what cool hacky attachments can I buy for a smartphone? Such as the thermal sensor mentioned in this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40947011.
Amazon (in India) turned up nothing when I searched for cool attachments etc.
Re: Ask HN: Any tools to do generic WiFi imaging?
#6To me, WiFi is the X in an XY problem. An endoscope can be had for https://www.google.com/search?q=endoscope Good luck.
That requires putting holes int he walls, doesnt it?
Re: Ask HN: Any tools to do generic WiFi imaging?
#7Did you look into stud finders? They’re devices specifically made to detect pipes and electrical wiring in walls.
I love that you immediately went to WiFi for this though. Gotta love us tech people over complicating things haha!
Re: Ask HN: Any tools to do generic WiFi imaging?
#8To me, WiFi is the X in an XY problem. An endoscope can be had for https://www.google.com/search?q=endoscope Good luck.
That requires putting holes int he walls, doesnt it?
It takes 2 minutes to fix a hole with filler paste. You can also find a discrete place to put it, like the opposite side of the wall, under the threshold, behind a closet, using existing holes for wiring.
Drilling gently through wood or gypsum, you will notice immediately that you got through the sheet, before you can even hit a pipe or anything else behind. Then use that hole for the endoscopy to map out the beams and sensitives behind.
Re: Ask HN: Any tools to do generic WiFi imaging?
#9An educated guess, but I'd think wifi signal object detection works on recording a baseline (empty room signals) and then doing a diff to the baseline when some object moves. If that's the case, you cound not use the wifi signal to map the static room itself.
Re: Ask HN: Any tools to do generic WiFi imaging?
#10I would like to ask about what cool hacky attachments can I buy for a smartphone? Such as the thermal sensor mentioned in this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40947011 . Amazon (in India) turned up nothing when I searched for cool attachments etc.
A truly "hackish" all-in-one test/measurement gadget is;
1) ExpEYES (Experiments for Young Engineers and Scientists) - https://expeyes.in/
2) SEELab 3.0 which is a upgrade of ExpEYES-17 - https://csparkresearch.in/seelab3
I have played with the previous version of ExpEYES (ExpEYES Junior) using the Python software. I also have the Seelab3 but haven't played with it yet. You can buy them directly (don't buy from Amazon due to markup) from any of the dealers listed in https://expeyes.in/hardware.html (i bought my Seelab3 from Novatronics).
There is a Android version of the software for both and so you can use them from your Smartphone/Tablet.