Applied Electrodynamics unveiled wall-seeing radio imaging; the handheld comes next

Why it matters

WaveSight puts an experienced consumer-hardware group against a costly industrial problem. Adoption will depend on whether its 1 mm claim survives jobsites and reaches a shippable handheld.

Bilgehan Avser (@bavser), Brian Huppi, Paul Leutheuser and George McLean unveiled Applied Electrodynamics' WaveSight in a July 30th launch, pitching a radio-wave imaging system that maps pipes, wiring and structural elements hidden inside walls.

Applied Electrodynamics is starting with construction and industrial inspection, where cutting into the wrong section of a wall can trigger repairs, delays and change orders. The San Francisco business also lists security screening, cargo inspection and defense among its intended markets.

The four founders arrived with unusually deep hardware resumes. Avser led antenna work across multiple iPhone generations before becoming head of technology at Humane. Huppi helped develop early iPhone prototypes and appears on patents for the first Nest Learning Thermostat. Leutheuser worked on iPhone hardware including the haptic home button and water-resistant enclosure, while McLean developed imaging systems and contributed to the laser display used in Humane's Ai Pin, according to their Y Combinator profiles.

Their new venture took shape after HP agreed on February 18th, 2025 to acquire key Humane software, intellectual property and employees for $116 million. Applied Electrodynamics gives several members of Humane's hardware group another attempt at building a new sensing platform, this time around an industrial tool with a defined buyer and an expensive problem.

Turning reflections into a scaled map

WaveSight sends radio waves into a surface and processes the returning reflections into an image of the objects inside. Applied Electrodynamics says its hardware and imaging algorithms work through sheetrock, tile, marble, quartz, brick, insulation and composite layers.

The output is a three-dimensional point cloud that Applied Electrodynamics says is natively scaled and accurate to 1 mm. The founders present that output as immediately readable, without the specialized interpretation associated with some industrial inspection systems.

Those performance figures remain Applied Electrodynamics' claims. The commercial test will be whether the 1 mm accuracy holds across varying wall thicknesses, moisture levels, metal mesh, insulation and crowded mechanical systems under job-site conditions.

Radio-frequency wall scanning is already sold as a construction tool. Walabot DIY uses RF sensing to identify studs, pipes, wires and movement. Hilti's PS 85 uses radar to locate embedded objects at depths of up to eight inches, with listed localization accuracy of plus or minus 5 mm to 10 mm.

Applied Electrodynamics is betting that a higher-resolution, camera-like image and a scaled point cloud can move wall scanning beyond hit prevention. A reliable map could feed renovation plans, as-built records and building information models, giving contractors data they can reuse rather than a one-time warning about where not to drill.

A prototype heading toward a product

Applied Electrodynamics says it has built the core imaging hardware and algorithms. Its YC launch describes a handheld unit that combines radio imaging with conventional color and thermal cameras as the next step.

The preorder page currently registers prospective customers for early access, launch pricing and product updates. That puts WaveSight between a demonstrated imaging system and a commercially specified tool. Applied Electrodynamics still has to turn the prototype into hardware that can survive construction sites, produce repeatable scans and fit into contractor purchasing budgets.

The pricing decision will matter because established scanners already span consumer and professional buyers. Hilti lists the PS 85 from $1,689 in the US, while phone-connected wall scanners address less demanding use cases. Applied Electrodynamics' claimed precision and richer output point toward professional pricing, particularly if the initial customers are general contractors, industrial inspectors and defense organizations.

Applied Electrodynamics says hidden pipes, cables and structural elements contribute to more than $20 billion in avoidable construction rework each year. That figure comes from Applied Electrodynamics, and published estimates of rework vary sharply by methodology. The Construction Industry Institute has placed rework between 2% and 20% of contract value on typical projects, while a 2026 study summarized by the American Society of Civil Engineers calculated average precompletion and postcompletion rework at about 0.76% in one contractor's project data.

The founders' backgrounds make the engineering ambition credible enough to inspect closely. Applied Electrodynamics says the group has worked together for over eight years and collectively holds over 250 patents. WaveSight now needs the part that a patent count cannot provide: repeated field performance in old buildings, active construction sites and industrial facilities where wall contents rarely resemble a clean demonstration panel.