WiDetect: A Robust and Low-Complexity Wireless Motion Detector

Motion detection as a key component in modern security systems has received an increasing attention recently, but most existing solutions require special installation, calibration, and only have a limited coverage. In this paper, we propose WiDetect, a highly accurate, calibration-free, and low-complexity wireless motion detector. By exploiting the statistical theory of electromagnetic waves, we establish a link between the autocorrelation function of the physical layer channel state information (CSI) and motion in the environment. Temporal, frequency and spatial diversity are also exploited to further improve the robustness and accuracy of WiDetect. Extensive experiments conducted in several facilities show that WiDetect can achieve similar detection performance compared to a commercial home security system, while with much larger coverage and lower cost.