NASA Tech Senses Heartbeats And Saves Quake-Hit Nepalese

By R. Siva Kumar - 09 May '15 19:19PM

Can advanced heartbeat detection technology save people trapped in disaster response training?

It sure seems so, if you see how four men, trapped in Nepal's rubble, were saved thanks to a novel technology called "advanced heartbeat detection", according to nationalgeographic.

It was an amazing rescue effort that showed the first ever real-world use of the technology developed by NASA and the Department of Homeland Security.

There were two prototype units of that system called Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response (FINDER), which were dispatched to Nepal.

"For me as the developer of the technology, it was like sending a child off to college," says Jim Lux, who manages the project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The FINDER unit is powered by a lithium battery and beams low-power microwaves. "The waves can detect subtle movements, such as the slight pulsing of skin that reveals a heartbeat. The waves can penetrate up to about 30 feet (9 meters) into mounds of rubble or 20 feet (6 meters) into solid concrete," according to nationalgeographic.

"The true test of any technology is how well it works in a real-life operational setting," said DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology Dr. Reginald Brothers. "Of course, no one wants disasters to occur, but tools like this are designed to help when our worst nightmares do happen. I am proud that we were able to provide the tools to help rescue these four men," he added, according to jpl.

Several men were trapped under ten feet of rubble for days in Chautara, a village north of Kathmandu, until a global team from many countries used the FINDER devices to detect two sets of men under two different collapsed buildings. How long they were trapped is unclear.

One plus point of FINDER over mikes or other tools is that even if a person is unconscious, but has a beating pulse, he can be found.

At first, FINDER was developed to sense planets, but two companies licensed it for search and rescues, with each unit priced at around $15,000.

The team is still fine-tuning FINDER, and they also want to add on a calibration scale.