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https://github.com/schollz/find-lf

Track the location of every Wi-Fi device (:iphone:) in your house using Raspberry Pis and FIND
https://github.com/schollz/find-lf

smarthome smartphone tracking wifi

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Track the location of every Wi-Fi device (:iphone:) in your house using Raspberry Pis and FIND

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README 

        
# find-lf



This is a extension of FIND, [the Framework for Internal Navigation and Discovery](https://github.com/schollz/find), which is based on the idea of [Lucius Fox's sonar system in *The Dark Knight*](http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Lucius_Fox_(Morgan_Freeman)) that is used to track cellphones.



The system uses a network of Raspberry Pis which sniff the WiFi probe requests from WiFi-enabled devices and sends these parcels to a central server which compiles and forwards the fingerprint to the [FIND server](https://github.com/schollz/find) which then uses machine learning to classify the location based on the unique WiFi fingerprints.



This system does not require being logged into a particular WiFi - it will track *any phone/device with WiFi enabled*! (Caveat: for iOS devices it will only track if Wi-Fi is associated with a network - any network, though - because of [MAC spoofing](http://blog.mojonetworks.com/ios8-mac-randomization-analyzed/) it uses for security). This system also does not require installing any apps on a phone. Tracking occurs anytime a WiFi chip makes a probe request (which is every minute or so). For this to work, it requires a one-time setup to populate the system with known fingerprints of known locations before it can pinpoint locations (see #3 below).



### Note: **It may be illegal** to monitor networks for MAC addresses, especially on networks that *you do not own*. Please check your country's laws (for US [Section 18 U.S. Code § 2511](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2511)) - [discussion](https://github.com/schollz/howmanypeoplearearound/issues/4).



# How does it work?



You can setup Raspberry Pis around a house in a way that they will see different signal strengths from various WiFi devices. Each WiFi-enabled device see requests from the various Raspberry Pis with different strengths (see colored bars in Figure below). These graphs are a *fingerprint* which can be used to uniquely classify the location.



![](/docs/graphic/room-schematic.png)



The Raspberry Pi cluster gets probe requests to various WiFi devices, and compiles these and forwards them to a FIND-LF server. This FIND-LF server then sends a compiled fingerprint to a main server. This system uses WiFi probe requests, which occur on any WiFi enabled device, as long as WiFi is enabled. These probe requests generally occur when a scan takes place, which is every few minutes when the phone is being used.



![](/docs/graphic/find-lf-example.png)



Once sent to the FIND server, the location can be directly determined. For more information about this, see the [FIND README](https://github.com/schollz/find).



# Requirements



You will need a Raspberry Pi. Ones with built-in Wifi work best:



- [Raspberry Pi Zero W](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071L2ZQZX/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=scholl-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B071L2ZQZX&linkId=ab2f9d564a4f517c5b004a760d0d6e29)

- [Raspberry Pi 3](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C6EQNNK/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=scholl-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01C6EQNNK&linkId=805012388be781415a6be827b50c76ac)



You will need a monitor-mode enabled wifi USB adapter. There are a number of possible USB WiFi adapters that support monitor mode. Here's a list that are popular:



- [USB Rt3070 $14](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NAXX40C/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=scholl-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00NAXX40C&linkId=b72d3a481799c15e483ea93c551742f4)

- [Panda PAU5 $14](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EQT0YK2/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=scholl-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00EQT0YK2&linkId=e5b954672d93f1e9ce9c9981331515c4)

- [Panda PAU6 $15](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JDVRCI0/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=scholl-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00JDVRCI0&linkId=e73e93e020941cada0e64b92186a2546)

- [Panda PAU9 $36](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY35HGO/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=scholl-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01LY35HGO&linkId=e63f3beda9855abd59009d6173234918)

- [Alfa AWUSO36NH $33](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035APGP6/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=scholl-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B0035APGP6&linkId=b4e25ba82357ca6f1a33cb23941befb3)

- [Alfa AWUS036NHA $40](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Y6MIXS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=scholl-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B004Y6MIXS&linkId=0277ca161967134a7f75dd7b3443bded)

- [Alfa AWUS036NEH $40](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035OCVO6/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=scholl-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B0035OCVO6&linkId=bd45697540120291a2f6e169dcf81b96)

- [Sabrent NT-WGHU $15 (b/g) only](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003EVO9U4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=scholl-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B003EVO9U4&linkId=06d4784d38b6bcef5957f3f6e74af8c8)



Namely you want to find a USB adapter with one of the following chipsets: Atheros AR9271, Ralink RT3070, Ralink RT3572, or Ralink RT5572.



# Setup



## 1. Initialize Pis



[Install Raspbian lite](https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/) onto a Pi. If you don't use the `pi` user, make sure to give the user sudo acess. Then initialize the Raspberry Pi with the following script

```

sudo sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/schollz/find-lf/master/node/initialize.sh)"

```

Alternatively, you can do this using [my script](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/schollz/find-lf/master/node/pibakery.xml) for [PiBakery](http://www.pibakery.org/).



Also edit `/etc/network/interfaces` and remove the `wpa-conf` line for `wlan1`.



Do this for several Pis and then plug in the WiFi adapter that has "monitor" mode.



## 2. Start Pi cluster



First make sure you have SSH installed and nmap.



```

sudo apt-get install openssh-client openssh-server nmap

```



Its useful to add your SSH key to each Pi, which you can do just using:



```

ssh-keygen                                               # do this once

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh pi@1YOURADDRESS \

  "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"     # do for every Pi

```



Then download `cluster.py` for accessing the cluster

```

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/schollz/find-lf/master/tools/cluster.py

```



Then, to initialize, just run

```

python3 cluster.py initialize

```

to which you'll be asked for the information about your cluster. Choose any `group` that you want, but remember it, as you will need it to login to the FIND server. For the `lf address`, you can use the default (a public server) or set it to your own. See `find-lf/server/README.md` for more information.



To easily find which hostnames/IPs are on your network, use



```

python3 cluster.py list

```



Startup the Pi cluster using `python3.py cluster start`. You can check the status with `python3 cluster.py status`



## 3. Classify locations using Pi cluster



After the cluster is up in running, you need to do learning. Take a smart phone and identify its mac address, something like `AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF`. Take your phone to a location. Then activate the find-lf server to do learning either by switching on [the find-lf website](https://lf.internalpositioning.com) or running `python3 cluster.py -u AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF -l location learn`.



*This is important!* Before moving to a new location, make sure to turn off learning by switching to tracking. Activate this on the find-lf server using the [the find-lf website](https://lf.internalpositioning.com) or use `python3 cluster.py track`.



Repeat these steps for as many locations as you want.



## 4. Track all the cellphones!



Now just go to https://ml.internalpositioning.com and login using your group name to see tracking of all the phones!



You can also track a single phone using https://ml.internalpositioning.com/GROUP/dashboard?user=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF.



# License



Copyright 2015-2017 Zack Scholl ([email protected], @zack_118). All rights reserved. Use of this source code is governed by a AGPL license that can be found in the LICENSE file.



# Todo



- [ ] Determine the wlan0/1 of the Wi-Fi adapter automatically (currently it defaults to wlan1, which is right most of the time)