MMI Faculty Yasamin Mostofi's Lab Counts Seated Crowds From Natural Body Fidgets

WiFi signal strength estimates crowd size through walls without relying on people to carry a device

September 14, 2021
Yasamin Mostofi

For the first time, counting a stationary seated crowd from outside a room using WiFi signals without relying on people to carry a device has been made possible by researchers in the lab of UCSB Professor and MMI Faculty Yasamin Mostofi. The technique needs only a wireless transmitter and receiver outside the area of interest where the crowd is seated. Remote, passive counting of the number of people in a seated crowd has a variety of applications, including smart energy management, crowd size control during pandemics, and business planning and security, among many others.

Learn more about this exciting new technology in this story by Sonia Fernandez at The Current.