Wi-Filter: WiFi-Assisted Frame Filtering on the Edge for Scalable and Resource-Efficient Video Analytics

With the growing prevalence of large-scale intelligent surveillance camera systems, the burden on real-time video analytics pipelines has significantly increased due to continuous video transmission from numerous cameras. To mitigate this strain, recent approaches focus on filtering irrelevant video frames early in the pipeline, at the camera or edge device level. In this paper, we propose Wi-Filter, an innovative filtering method that leverages Wi-Fi signals from wireless edge devices, such as Wi-Fi-enabled cameras, to optimize filtering decisions dynamically. Wi-Filter utilizes channel state information (CSI) readily available from these wireless cameras to detect human motion within the field of view, adjusting the filtering threshold accordingly. The motion-sensing models in Wi-Filter (Wi-Fi assisted Filter) are trained using a self-supervised approach, where CSI data are automatically annotated via synchronized camera feeds. We demonstrate the effectiveness of Wi-Filter through real-world experiments and prototype implementation. Wi-Filter achieves motion detection accuracy exceeding 97.2% and reduces false positive rates by up to 60% while maintaining a high detection rate, even in challenging environments, showing its potential to enhance the efficiency of video analytics pipelines.