Intelligent metasurface imager and recognizer

There is an increasing need to remotely monitor people in daily life using radio-frequency probe signals. However, conventional systems can hardly be deployed in real-world settings since they typically require objects to either deliberately cooperate or carry a wireless active device or identification tag. To accomplish complicated successive tasks using a single device in real time, we propose the simultaneous use of a smart metasurface imager and recognizer, empowered by a network of artificial neural networks (ANNs) for adaptively controlling data flow. Here, three ANNs are employed in an integrated hierarchy, transforming measured microwave data into images of the whole human body, classifying specifically designated spots (hand and chest) within the whole image, and recognizing human hand signs instantly at a Wi-Fi frequency of 2.4 GHz. Instantaneous in situ full-scene imaging and adaptive recognition of hand signs and vital signs of multiple non-cooperative people were experimentally demonstrated. We also show that the proposed intelligent metasurface system works well even when it is passively excited by stray Wi-Fi signals that ubiquitously exist in our daily lives. The reported strategy could open up a new avenue for future smart cities, smart homes, human-device interaction interfaces, health monitoring, and safety screening free of visual privacy issues.