Close-proximity detection for hand approaching using backscatter communication

Smart environments and security systems require automatic detection of human behaviors including approaching to or departing from an object. Existing human motion detection systems usually require human beings to carry special devices, which limits their applications. In this paper, we present a system called APID to detect hand approaching behaviors by analyzing backscatter communication signals from a passive RFID tag on the object. APID does not require human beings to carry any device. The idea is based on the influence of hand movements to the vibration of backscattered tag signals. APID is compatible with commodity off-the-shelf devices and the EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 protocol. In APID, a commercial RFID reader continuously queries tags through emitting RF signals and tags simply respond with their IDs. A USRP monitor passively analyzes the communication signals and reports the approach and departure behaviors. We have implemented the APID system for both single-object and multi-object scenarios.