Looks like Sensor’s & Software have done it again! In last month’s Subsurface Views, the company’s newsletter, they announced another ground penetrating radar system with life saving potential. Rescue Radar, as it’s being called, can help locate buried victims of earthquakes, avalanches or building collapses.

You are probably aware that ground penetrating radar can penetrate through soil, rubble, rock and snow. However, to locate a human below all this debris is very difficult unless they are moving. This system can detect movement as subtle as a victim breathing. Since breathing and or even heart beats have very regular patterns, varying levels of motion discrimination can be used to infer human life-like activity.

Rescue Radar consists of a sensor and a computer display which are connected by a wireless link. The reason for using a wireless link is to eliminate potential interference from moving cables and operator movement.

Operating the Rescue Radar is relatively simple. The sensor is placed at a monitoring point and this unit emits GPR pulses into the ground or debris and measures any returned reflections. The operator can then observe the response on the remote computer display which uses proprietary software.

The system analyzes any movement for life-like patterns and highlights positive indicators and the distance & range to any detected movement. All of these motion observations are recorded and can be replayed or saved if needed.

The sensor illuminates a 90 degree cone subsurface. Exploration depth can vary from a meter or two in high-loss environments like rock, building materials and other debris to more than 10 meters in highly transparent materials like snow. While the company admits GPR is not a “silver bullet” but when used properly in conjunction with other tools there is a real potential to save lives.

Our company uses Sensor & Software GPR equipment for various commercial applications such as subsurface utility locating and concrete imaging. I’ve always been impressed with the quality and reliability of these commercial products. But I have to admit, I’m even more impressed that this company has spent their resources and money to develop a product, which has a fairly limited market, which can actually save lives.

Tags: avalanche victim rescue, GPR, ground penetrating radar, locate buried victims

This entry was posted on February 7, 2011 at 1:10 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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