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WiFi signals can measure heart rate

(news.ucsc.edu)
463 points bookofjoe | 3 comments | 04 Sep 25 14:53 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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supernova87a ◴[04 Sep 25 20:25 UTC] No.45131847[source]▶
Hey, I heard about how utility pole inspecting helicopters are able to tell the good/rotten state of wooden telephone poles by the reverb pattern of sound waves coming off the poles from the rotors -- it seems to me the whole field of non-invasive sensing (and using existing/ambient emission sources) is getting pretty impressive.
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bcrl ◴[05 Sep 25 00:56 UTC] No.45133942[source]▶
In telecommunications construction we are taught to make ample use of the "hammer test" when working on and around poles. The difference in sound between a good pole, a marginal pole and a completely rotten pole is quite significant.
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jacquesm ◴[05 Sep 25 01:09 UTC] No.45134036[source]▶
You could of course just bury your lines.
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NoPicklez ◴[05 Sep 25 03:01 UTC] No.45134603[source]▶
And I wonder why that hasn't been commonplace if its just that easy
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cycomanic ◴[05 Sep 25 05:55 UTC] No.45135382[source]▶
It is commonplace in many parts of the world. Most (all?) of Europe, Australia, many places in Asia.
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zahrc ◴[05 Sep 25 06:47 UTC] No.45135639[source]▶
And look where that got Germany; my hometown and neighbouring towns are mostly on ADSL or rarely VDSL if you’re lucky, because the big players don’t want anything to do with the cost and legal side.

Local municipalities establish de-facto monopolies and drive prices up, because they offer slightly faster and stable lines.

There is a joint effort by local utility companies in Mecklenburg and they’re trying to make things better, but anecdotally are also challenging to deal with.

My now residence here in the UK is not really rural and for years Giganet/CityFibre/toob promised gigabit soonTM for years and the date got delayed and delayed and delayed.

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47282847 ◴[05 Sep 25 14:09 UTC] No.45138803[source]▶
The GDR was deploying fiber, but the west is using capitalism as underlying mechanism so the fiber was left unused and even replaced by copper after reunification because why use the latest technology just yet when you can get people to pay both for the downgrade and the upgrade some decades later!
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1. LargoLasskhyfv ◴[05 Sep 25 21:19 UTC] No.45143748[source]▶
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optische_Anschlussleitung was not a thing of the GDR. Though one could think so, because of the ...errm... let's say 'mismanagement' :-)

That's what you get with arrogant and ignorant large bureaucracies, anywhere, anytime :-)

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2. 47282847 ◴[06 Sep 25 14:43 UTC] No.45149704[source]▶
There was fiber deployment in the GDR and plans to extend it already before the OPAL project, which came after reunification. I remember our East German CS network professor talking about it with passion but fail to find information online. Which doesn’t surprise me, since history is written by the winners. I trust his personal stories more than the lack of information online.
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3. LargoLasskhyfv ◴[06 Sep 25 18:37 UTC] No.45151782[source]▶
It could be. Even much stuff from the 'winners' from before common internet access is lost ;->

OTOH, considering how well the 'megabit-chip' went, I'm wondering wtf they'd do with fiber, at the times? For the military, agencies, ministries and some universities maybe, but for the masses? How common was the 'stinknormales telephon' in households, back then?