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GooglePatent applicationSecurity & privacyInterest 6/10

Google patents radar system that recognizes users without cameras

Patent drawing
Patent drawing from the official filing.

Google has filed a patent for a radar-based system that can distinguish between different people using the unique way their bodies reflect radar waves. The technology identifies users based on physical and movement patterns without needing to capture personal data like faces or names. It can also create temporary profiles for new visitors so the device can recognize them later.

Why it mattersThis approach offers a privacy-friendly alternative to cameras for user identification, potentially allowing devices to tailor experiences without storing sensitive biometric data.

In the filing’s own words

Techniques and devices for user distinction for radar-based gesture detectors are described in this document. These techniques enable a computing device to distinguish users using a radar system that may collect and analyze radar characteristics of a user to distinguish that user from other users. The radar characteristics may include radar-reflection features of the user such as topological, temporal, gestural, and/or contextual information. A user may be distinguished without determining personally identifiable information, and the computing device may record radar characteristics to distinguish each user at a later time and provide tailored experiences. When an unregistered person is detected, the radar system may assign the unregistered person an unregistered user identification that contains detected radar characteristics to distinguish this person from other users at a future time.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A method comprising: transmitting a radar-transmit signal from a radar system associated with a computing device; receiving, at the radar system or another radar system associated with the computing device, a radar-receive signal; determining, from the radar-receive signal, a radar characteristic of an object from which the radar-receive signal is reflected; determining, based on the radar characteristic of the object, that the object is an unregistered person, the unregistered person not a registered user associated with the computing device; assigning, to the unregistered person, an unregistered user identification; associating the radar characteristic of the object to the unregistered user identification; and storing the unregistered user identification and the associated radar characteristic, the associated radar characteristic usable to determine, at a future time, a presence of the unregistered person by correlating a future-received radar-receive signal having a similar or identical radar characteristic with the associated radar characteristic of the unregistered person.

Facts

Company
Google (Google LLC)
Official title
User Distinction for Radar-Based Gesture Detectors
Publication number
US20260328903A1
Application number
19113189
Filed
Sep 30, 2022
Published
Oct 22, 2026
Inventors
6
Claims
21

Classified under

G01S 7/415 Physics & computingG01S 13/88 Physics & computingG06F 3/017 Physics & computingG10L 17/04 Physics & computingG01S 7/417 Physics & computing
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.