MIT’s wireless walking speed measurement is way more accurate than a Fitbit

MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab has figured out a way of measuring walking speed to within 95 and 99 percent accuracy – all without requiring a wearable or other on-body measurement device. The tech uses wireless signals, dubbed “WiGait” by the research team, sent out by a router-like devices within the home to track walking speed and stride length over time.

The WiGait system is designed for use in-home, where it can be set up in an unobtrusive location, regularly taking measurements of a user’s walking pace and gait without actually requiring them to remember to put on a wristband or charge a device. The ability to track walking speed over time is a huge boon to clinical research, since a growing body of evidence suggests it’s a great indicator for helping to predict health issues, and the ability to identify changes in stride length, too, can help better understand certain conditions like Parkinson’s.

WiGait is better than a number of other solutions because it doesn’t require on-body equipment, and it also isn’t as invasive as cameras, which can also be used to capture and measure stride length and speed, but which also come with a whole host of privacy concerns. A patient is more likely to feel comfortable with a sensor that doesn’t capture footage, and even the difference between seeing a camera and seeing a non-descript antenna mounted to a wall is bound to have advantages from a patient’s perspective....

There’s this notion put forth by the majority in the precious metals community that the Fed and Central Banks control the market price of gold. I have even heard that some analysts believe the Fed could push the gold price any where they saw fit... even to zero. While I agree that the Central Banks do play a role in gold market intervention, they most certainly CANNOT push the price of gold anywhere they want. This is an absolute falsity... and I have the data to prove it.

To understand how the market determines the price of gold, we must first dismiss the economic principle of SUPPLY & DEMAND. While supply and demand forces are factors in the short-term price movement of gold, they do not really factor all that much over the longer term.

Here is a chart showing the relationship of the gold and oil price since the 1940’s:

The gold price is in DARK ORANGE while the oil price is in BLACK. We can plainly see the price of gold and oil have moved in tandem, especially after Nixon dropped the Dollar-Gold peg in 1971. While the oil-gold price movements are not exact, they parallel each other quite nicely. Thus, when the oil price skyrocketed during the 1970’s, so did the gold price. The same thing took place in the 2000’s.

Interestingly, the same thing took place with the silver price below:

In both of these charts, the volatility in the oil, gold and silver price increased significantly after 1971. There was an underlying reason for this… and it just wasn’t the dropping of the U.S. Dollar convertibility into gold in 1971. It was also