I happen to live in an earthquake prone state, so the fear of being buried alive under a collapsed roof is very real.
NASA has developed a new tool to aid disaster relief first responders. A small box the size of a carry-on suitcase (an actual carry-on, not those gi-normous bags YOU try and cram into overhead space) utilizes RADAR to detect human heart beats through tens of feet of rubble and debris.
FINDER, which stands for “Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response”, isn’t just a tech proof of concept either. NASA has worked on fleshing out the device’s ecosystem focusing on ease of use and portability. FINDER’s battery will allow for up to 14 hours of use, and it’s controlled via tablet. NASA believes that most people should be capable of using FINDER after only a few minutes of introduction, and that it’s little different in operation than pointing a flashlight down a dark tunnel.
Lastly, even though FINDER is bleeding edge rescue tech, NASA estimates that individual units could sell for around $10,000. In terms of speeding up disaster response, that’s not a difficult price to pay.
(pic via PhysOrg)