The Wi-Fi already in a room can detect presence and abnormal events without cameras or wearables. How channel state information and edge AI turn a router into a privacy-first sensor.
Fabian van Prooijen (RadioSense)
Keynote · Forum One, The Things Conference 2026, Amsterdam, 23 September 2026
Fabian van Prooijen of RadioSense argues that the Wi-Fi and cellular networks already in buildings can double as sensors: the channel state information (CSI) a Wi-Fi chip computes changes when a body moves, and an edge AI model turns those changes into presence, activity and abnormality alerts. His motivation is his grandfather, who fell, could not press his alarm pendant and was found four hours later; falls cost the Netherlands more than €1 billion. Processing stays on the router, only the alert leaves it, and the system cannot identify who is in a room. Sensing has entered the Wi-Fi standard and 3GPP Release 19, with a first JCAS standard expected around 2028.
Chapters
0:00 Can the access point see me?
1:04 A fall and a pendant he could not press
1:41 Networks built to move bits
2:55 Falls cost the Netherlands €1 billion
3:12 Cameras, wearables, PIR and radar fall short
4:02 How a body changes the radio signal
4:53 CSI: subcarriers, amplitude and phase
6:00 A plug-and-play sensing router
7:17 Privacy: processing on the edge
8:02 JCAS and ISAC: one waveform, two jobs
8:35 3GPP Release 19 and the road to 2028
9:37 What it can and cannot sense
12:02 Harbour tripwires and prison drones
13:10 Signal traces: empty room to abnormality
14:28 Care, security and facility management
Speakers on LinkedIn
• Fabian van Prooijen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabianvanprooijen
Mentioned in the talk
• RadioSense: https://www.radiosense.tech
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