Finding people in the ruins

Written by nunof

Tuesday, 10 November 2009 23:00

To find people from the ruins, there exist many different recognition techniques or their combinations:
- visual recognition (e.g. camera based) on day or external lighting
- thermal recognition (e.g. infrared camera based)
- audio recognition (e.g. acoustic microphones and some software to extract signs of life from the acoustic spectrum)
- vibration recognition (e.g. seismic, structure listening)
- gas recognition (e.g. detection of exhaled gases)

Also important aspect is to detect environments that either can provide life supporting conditions or totally exclude the possibility for life (e.g. toxic gases).

Another important aspect is to be aware of the surroundings, i.e. ensure the safety of working surroundings for the rescuers.

There exist commercial products that combine visual and audio recognition as well as visual & thermal camera audio combinations.
Also there exist geophone type solutions. However if all the above mentioned recognition ways can be combined, there will be added value for resque operations, and this will be considered and realized on SGL for USaR project.

The sum of data gathered by different sensors is easily huge, and only the relevant information should be somehow picked up from all the data. And the information should be transferred to all the stake holders in the rescue operation. The wireless information network brought by rescue team to the operation field is the only solution that can be considered and relied on on the disaster areas. However this task is not trivial, since there will be need e.g. for radio interference avoidance, low power consumption, relatively high amount of transferred data and rugged solutions, that are really easy to use to resque teams.

The multi sensor integration sets interesting demands on integration, not only the technical demands have to be thought, but also the ergonomy, user experience, field operability etc. have to be considered. E.g. one has to simultaneously put gas sensors, visual sensors, and microphones into a single probe, which brings demands that can be fulfilled only by thorough communication of the demands between different sensor experts and partly doing compromises.