JPL Finder Radar Saves 4 Men Trapped in Rubble in Nepal By Detecting Their Heartbeats

NASA's Radar Found 4 Men Trapped in Rubble in Nepal By Their Heartbeats

After the earthquake hit, rescuers in the village of Chautara got two prototype units of the device called FINDER, or Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response. The core of the device is a system that bounces microwaves around to “see.” Crucially, it can discern faint heartbeats and breaths in people buried under several feet of rubble.

In this case, FINDER was apparently able to detect the heartbeats of two men each in two different collapsed buildings. The men had been trapped for days, under as much as 10 feet of rubble.

The details of the rescues are otherwise scant, so it’s hard to say exactly what would have happened without FINDER. Still, it shows the FINDER works out in the field and not just in controlled test situations. We hear about the potential in new technologies all the time—with FINDER, some of that potential just became reality.

Previously/Related

NASA, JPL develop low-power radar Finder to locate earthquake survivors | abc7.com



spendergast: NASA and Homeland Security Test Radar for Locating Disaster Victims