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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Can Wi-Fi signals be used for energy efficiency?
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:01
	Publish Date:		2016-02-01 00:00:00
	Description:		Wi-Fi signals are predominantly used for communication, but a team of engineers at the University of California, Santa Barbara are working to use Wi-Fi signals as a sensing mechanism. Yasamin Mostofi and her team have shown that a Wifi signal can be used to count the number of people in a given space, which can someday be used for energy efficiency. "For instance, the current smart speakers, they have Wi-Fi cards, so we have a very rich environment in a smart home for Wi-Fi links. And so we can imagine they could be used in figuring out which areas are more crowded and optimizing all sorts of things, like heating and cooling based on where people are. We think of it as an additional way of sensing." Mostofi’s lab is also working on other uses for Wi-Fi, including using at archeological sites. "Where sometimes there’s part of a structure that’s, you know, you just don’t want to break and you want to sense something behind it and you just simply can’t use cameras – it’s not visible."
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