Wi-Fi! It’s everywhere, and yet you can’t really see it, by virtue of the technology relying on the transmission of electromagnetic waves outside the visual spectrum. Never mind, though, because you can always build yourself a Wi-Fi analyzer to get some insight into your radio surroundings, as demonstrated by [moononournation]. The core of the build […]
Apple was all-in on WiFi from the beginning, launching the AirPort line of products to much fanfare in 1999. In 2004, along came the AirPort Express—a fully-functional router the size of a laptop charger, that offered audio streaming to boot. As [schvabek] found out that while a lot of older Apple gear has long ago […]
Wi-Fi cameras are everywhere these days, with wireless networking making surveillance systems easier to deploy than ever. [CiferTech] has been recently developing the RF Clown—a tool that can block transmissions from these cameras at some range. The build is based around an ESP32, with three tactile switches and an OLED display for the user interface. […]
Dial-up modems had a distinctive sound when connecting, with the glittering, screeching song becoming a familiar melody to those jumping online in the early days of the Internet. Modern digital connections don’t really have an analog to this, by virtue of being entirely digital. And yet, [Nick Bild] decided to make WiFi audible in a […]
If you’ve got an existing smart home rig, motion sensors can be a useful addition to your setup. You can use them for all kinds of things, from turning on lights when you enter a room, to shutting off HVAC systems when an area is unoccupied. Typically, you’d add dedicated motion sensors to your smart […]
A few weeks back, we reported on a research group that figured out how to measure heartrate using perturbations in WiFi signals. [Nick Bild] was interested in this so-called “Pulse-Fi” technique, but noted the paper explaining it was behind a paywall. Thus, he worked to recreate the technology himself so he could publish the results […]
Before you decide to click away, thinking we’re talking about some heart rate monitor that connects to a display using WiFi, wait! Pulse-Fi is a system that monitors heart rate using the WiFi signal itself as a measuring device. No sensor, no wires, and it works on people up to ten feet away. Researchers at […]
To every gadget, tool, or toy, you can reasonably think: ‘Sure I could buy this… but can I make it myself?’ And that’s where [Ben] decided he could, and got to work. On a sea scooter, to be exact. This sea scooter was to be a fully waterproof, hermetically sealed 3D-printed underwater personal propulsion device, […]
In the early 00s there was a tiny moment before the widespread adoption of mobile broadband, after the adoption of home WiFi, and yet before the widespread use of encryption. For this brief time a unique practice arose called wardriving — where people would drive around, document, and use these open wireless networks. Although the […]