her team developed a program able to disentangle the chaotic jumble of data from the
reflected signals. Just as bats and dolphins use sonar signals to “see,” Katabi captures
movement with the help of a device that emits radio waves and detects the reflections.
“Radio signals are amazing creatures,” she says. “If you know how to manipulate
them, they can capture very minute motions.” Katabi clearly knows how. Her software
can detect a person’s position, movement, heart rate, breathing, and sleep stage. Not
only does her device work in the dark, like X-ray vision, it can use the data it collects to
see through walls.
Katabi built her system to help the millions of older adults who need emergency
treatment for falls each year. When her software detects a fall, it texts a caregiver or
calls an ambulance. Her system also tracks changes in breathing, activity level, heart
rate, or sleep patterns over time. For people with heart or lung disease, catching those
changes early gives doctors time to intervene before problems get serious.
To turn radio waves into a detailed picture of a person’s movements, Katabi’s
program needs to handle a huge amount of data. That challenge isn’t unique to her
software, however. Developers define data as any information processed or stored
by a computer. No matter what a program does, or how complex that program is, all
programs have the same core function of managing and manipulating data.
DATA EVERYWHERE
Some of the data central to programs is relatively obvious. Online shopping programs
need data about items for sale, such as the price and number of items in stock. Health
insurance software needs data about the medical services patients have received
and the cost of those services. Video streaming apps decode a flood of compressed
data, convert it into information about the color and location of pixels, and display the
transformed data on a screen. Katabi’s device pulls in radio wave data and translates it
into information about movement.
Programs also collect (or create) some surprising data. Retail software may collect
data about every item a shopper views, when they searched, and whether they opened
the last sales promo email. Health insurance software logs the source of each request
for patient information and documents every exchange of data with doctors or hospitals.
Having that information helps the company identify unauthorized attempts to access a
patient’s private medical information.
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Managing and Manipulating Data
