Systems and methods of device-free motion detection and presence detection

A system for motion detection and presence detection within an area of interest, comprising:

• a plurality of nodes to be arranged around the area of interest and automatically form a mesh wireless network, including a first node of the plurality of nodes to transmit a wireless signal as radio waves and form a first link with a second node of the plurality of nodes that measures a received signal strength (RSS) of the first link and reports a value of the measured RSS of the first link for processing, wherein the second node transmits a wireless signal as radio waves and forms a second link with the first node that measures a RSS of the wireless signal transmitted by the second node and reports a value of the measured RSS of the second link for processing;
• and
• a computing device in communication with the plurality of nodes to receive values of the measured RSS of links of the wireless mesh network, including the values of the measured RSS of the first link and the measured RSS of the second link, and track changes in the values over time, wherein the computing device processes the reported values of the measured RSS using an aggregate disturbance calculation to detect motion and presence within the area of interest, the aggregate disturbance calculation based on a plurality of values of them measured RSS over a period of time.