
Engineers have developed a system that uses regular Wi-Fi to measure a person's heart rate. Pulse-Fi technology requires no additional equipment and works with existing routers.
Rather than using body-worn sensors, Pulse-Fi analyzes the amplitude of Wi-Fi signals. When radio waves pass through a moving chest, the signal is distorted. Based on these subtle changes, the system can accurately calculate heart rate. Seven volunteers, five men and two women, were tested, with an ESP32 prototype placed between 1 and 3 meters from the volunteers.
The heart rate measured by Pulse-Fi matched pulse oximeter readings with an error of only 0.4 to 0.5 beats per minute. Additional tests on 118 participants in various body positions showed similar accuracy, with an average error of 0.2 beats per minute.
Developers believe Pulse-Fi could form the basis of future remote health monitoring systems, particularly in smart homes and hospitals, where contactless monitoring is crucial.