Exploring the Potential of Power Lines for Sensing Human Activities

This study explores the potential of using power lines to sense human activities. A model based on the Hertzian dipole approximation method is proposed to simulate the sensing mechanism, involving the calculation of the radiated field and the estimation of the Doppler frequency of the echoes. Simulations conducted with the proposed model demonstrate its effectiveness. Additionally, measurements performed with a universal software radio peripheral (USRP) follow the simulation results closely. These preliminary findings illustrate the feasibility of utilizing power lines for sensing human activities.