journal article·2025-12-29Open access

Training-Free and Environment-Robust Human Motion Segmentation with Commercial WiFi Device: An Image Perspective

Xu Wang, Linghua Zhang, Feng Shu

Applied Sciences· Volume 16· Issue 1

Abstract

WiFi sensing relies on capturing channel state information (CSI) fluctuations induced by human activities. Accurate motion segmentation is crucial for applications ranging from intrusion detection to activity recognition. However, prevailing methods based on variance, correlation coefficients, or deep learning are often constrained by complex threshold-setting procedures and dependence on high-quality sample data. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a training-free and environment-independent motion segmentation system using commercial WiFi devices from an image-processing perspective. The system employs a novel quasi-envelope to characterize CSI fluctuations and an iterative segmentation algorithm based on an improved Otsu thresholding method. Furthermore, a dedicated motion detection algorithm, leveraging the grayscale distribution of variance images, provides a precise termination criterion for the iterative process. Real-world experiments demonstrate that our system achieves an E-FPR of 0.33% and an E-FNR of 0.20% in counting motion events, with average temporal errors of 0.26 s and 0.29 s in locating the start and end points of human activity, respectively, confirming its effectiveness and robustness.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Indoor and Outdoor Localization Technologies · Wireless Networks and Protocols · Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

School of Communications and Information Engineering, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210003, China

School of Physics, Electronics and Intelligent Manufacturing, Huaihua University, Huaihua 418000, China

Jiangsu Engineering Research Center of Communication and Network Technology, Nanjing 210003, China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province · Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province · Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province

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