Washington: U.S. space agency NASA and the Department of Homeland Security said on September 18 Wednesday that they have teamed up to develop a portable radar device capable of detecting the heartbeats and breathing patterns of disaster victims trapped in large piles of rubble.
The prototype technology, called Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response, or FINDER, can locate individuals buried as deep as 30 feet (about 9 meters) in crushed materials, hidden behind 20 feet (about 6 meters) of solid concrete, and from a distance of 100 feet (about 30 meters) in open spaces.
"FINDER is bringing NASA technology that explores other planets to the effort to save lives on ours," Mason Peck, chief technologist for NASA and principal advisor on technology policy and programs, said in a statement. |
