Scientists Develop Heart Rate Cloak to Foil Radar Surveillance

Researchers at Rice University create a metasurface device that can spoof heartbeat signals and conceal a person's presence from high-frequency sensing systems.

Published on Feb. 9, 2026

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Researchers at Rice University have developed a new technology called MetaHeart that can mislead radar-based biometric tracking systems by reflecting back a fabricated heartbeat pattern. This allows people to conceal their presence and biometric signals, such as heart rate, from high-frequency sensing systems that could be used for surveillance or monitoring purposes.

Why it matters

The increasing prevalence of biometric tracking technologies, from facial recognition to radar-based heart rate monitoring, raises significant privacy concerns. This research demonstrates a potential countermeasure that could help protect individuals from unwanted surveillance and the disclosure of sensitive personal information.

The details

The researchers used a scenario with two characters - Trudy, a malicious intruder with a radar, and Alice, the unwitting target - to show how millimeter-wave sensing could be used to determine a person's presence and infer details about their physical or emotional state by tracking their heart rate. The MetaHeart device developed by the team is able to spoof the radar by reflecting back a fabricated heartbeat pattern, effectively concealing the target's actual biometric signals.

  • The research was conducted in 2026 and published on February 9, 2026.

The players

Dora Zivanovic

A graduate student in the lab of Edward Knightly at Rice University, who led the development of the MetaHeart device.

Edward Knightly

The Sheafor-Lindsay Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University, and the senior researcher on the study.

Trudy

A fictional malicious intruder with a radar, used in the researchers' scenario to demonstrate the potential for misuse of biometric tracking technologies.

Alice

A fictional unwitting target, used in the researchers' scenario to demonstrate the need for countermeasures against radar-based biometric surveillance.

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What they’re saying

“We fool the radar on the level of the electromagnetic signal itself. You can program the device with any heartbeat pattern you like.”

— Dora Zivanovic, Graduate student, Rice University (Mirage News)

“Sensing technologies are becoming higher resolution and more pervasive, and concerns around what that means for privacy should be taken seriously. It is important to explore potential vulnerabilities and think about how we might address them.”

— Edward Knightly, Sheafor-Lindsay Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University (Mirage News)

What’s next

The researchers plan to further develop the MetaHeart technology and explore its potential applications in protecting individual privacy from emerging biometric surveillance systems.

The takeaway

This research highlights the growing need for privacy-preserving countermeasures against the increasing prevalence of high-resolution biometric tracking technologies, which could be used for unwanted surveillance and the disclosure of sensitive personal information.