What might surprise many is that the FCC granted Amazon permission to use a “Radar Sensor” at the 57-64 GHz band.
This is similar to permission that was granted to Google back in 2018. If we take a look at the official documents, The tech giant has plans to use the new Radar sensor in commercial products, which will help them with “capturing motion in a three-dimensional space to enable contactless sleep tracing functionalities.”
In its request to the FCC, Amazon said,
The use of Radar Sensors in sleep tracking could improve awareness and management of sleep hygiene, which in turn could produce significant health benefits for many Americans… Radar Sensors will allow consumers to recognize potential sleep issues.
The company also states that the technology will help “people with disabilities” with “mobility, speech, or tactile impairments.”
As noted by Business Insider, Amazon hasn’t really given us any information on how the technology works. What we know is that the Radar Sensor will not make it to mobile devices. While this might come as a relief to some, the technology sounds really invasive since Amazon can basically track you even when you are asleep.
Another interesting thing to note here is that Google has already incorporated the technology in the form of Soli Radar that is available on Google Nest Hubs.
As to when the technology will be available in commercial products, we don’t know. Only time will tell when Amazon decides to track us even when we are asleep.
