A lot of people all over the planet suffer from sleep disorders. Diagnose these disorders in clinics with the help of electrodes connected to the patient’s body during sleep. This is the main disadvantage of the method. Now, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have a unique solution to this problem – they created a device that allows you to analyze and monitor sleep remotely using radio waves.
The new method is based on the previous work of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which used radio frequency signals to determine emotions and measure the speed of walking at home. In both cases, the radio waves are transmitted towards the person, and then reflected back into the receiver. Analyzing the changes in reflected waves, the system can learn a lot about the individual being studied – up to the change in breathing and heart rate in case of manifestations of various emotions.
The device itself looks like a small box, similar to a Wi-Fi router, which can be installed at home. It contains the transmitter and receiver of radio frequency signals. For the analysis of radio waves, researchers from MIT used a neural network, which eliminated radio signals reflected from various objects in the room.
As a result of the test of the new system on 25 volunteers, the researchers found that it has an 80% accuracy. This is comparable to the accuracy of the EEG, which is often used in sleep clinics. However, due to the fact that the device operates without sensors and wires, it has a distinct advantage over the EEG.
