Overview — What happens when the futuristic tech of a video game meets real IoT hardware? University of Pennsylvania researcher Chase Fong, backed by EBYTE hardware sponsorship, brought the iconic heartbeat sensor from Call of Duty to life with an ESP32 and EBYTE's E54 24GHz mmWave radar. Part playful maker experiment, part genuine engineering, it's a vivid example of academia–industry collaboration in action.

Background: A Two-Way Street of Collaboration

On March 30, 2026, Chengdu EBYTE Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. signed a sponsorship agreement with University of Pennsylvania researcher Chase Fong to support R&D on IoT mesh networking for communication between mobile users. The project studies how EBYTE's wireless modules can serve this goal — and builds a test platform that integrates multiple modules into a complete, deployable system.

EBYTE supplied a lineup spanning LoRa, mmWave radar, and Wi-Fi modules, including the E54-24LD12D (24GHz mmWave radar), E22P-915M30S (LoRa), E80-900M2213S, E108-GN071S, E101-32WN4, and E101-C6MN4. In return, the project goes public as open-source code, articles, videos, and photos — all carrying the EBYTE brand — creating a virtuous cycle of "hardware in, results out, brand up."

The Project: Bringing the Heartbeat Sensor Out of the Game

"I'd always wanted to see if I could build a working MW2-style heartbeat sensor from cheap off-the-shelf hardware. Turns out you can," Fong writes.

Built around an ESP32 main controller and EBYTE's E54 24GHz mmWave radar, the device tracks up to three people at once at distances up to 25 meters — and in theory sees through walls or doors, closely matching the sensor's in-game behavior. The full build and source code are open-sourced on GitHub (github.com/cfong2001/EBYTE_E54) for anyone to reproduce or build upon.

 Highlights: More Than Just a Gimmick

The project weaves mmWave sensing, embedded development, and interaction design into one package:

• Themes: MW2, Alien, plus standard options — easily extended for customization;

• Warning & dead zones: define zones where the radar flashes red when someone enters, or ignore tracks entirely;

• Path prediction: if a target drops out for under a second, the system predicts its trajectory so the blip never flickers out;

• Wi-Fi web HUD: streams live JSON radar data to your phone for remote viewing (still in testing);

• Settings menu: a variety of tweakable options for different scenarios.

From mmWave target detection to on-device processing and trajectory prediction, to a real-time web HUD, the project spans the full IoT chain of sense → process → present — a deep, hands-on command of EBYTE's products.

 Impact: Honest Praise from a Front-Line Developer

Fong's note of thanks is refreshingly candid:

"Thank you to EBYTE for providing the ESP32 and E54 hardware for this project. Besides the hardware support, I am under no obligation to say anything positive. Nonetheless, I can confirm that the parts I received all work reliably and the documentation/test software is superb. I can recommend."

Unvarnished praise like this is the most credible product endorsement there is. Per the agreement, the project reached developer communities far and wide — featured articles on r/meshtastic and r/reticulum, which together draw 61,000+ weekly visitors — plus social media videos and photos. This put EBYTE products and brand before exactly the IoT, mesh, and embedded developers who matter, while real-world usage feedback flowed back to help refine the products.

Looking Ahead

From a sponsorship agreement to an open-source hardware project that caught the developer community's attention, this collaboration shows the full value loop of academia–industry cooperation: enterprises empower developers with hardware and ecosystem resources; developers feed products and brands back with creativity and engineering skill; and frontier IoT technology reaches ever-wider applications.

EBYTE remains committed to supporting students and independent developers across IoT wireless communications. As research into mesh networking and mmWave sensing deepens, it looks forward to turning more "imagined technology" into real, deployable solutions — together.

Source: Adapted from the open-source project "I built a real-life MW2 Heartbeat Sensor with an ESP32 and EBYTE E54 mmWave Radar" by Chase Fong, and the sponsorship agreement between Chengdu EBYTE Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. and Chase Fong.

Open-source code: https://github.com/cfong2001/EBYTE_E54