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There are many situations in which the
ability to detect humans through walls would be beneficial. Law
enforcement officers often face the daunting task of determining
the exact locations of people behind walls in hostage scenarios
and in covert operations. Search and rescue workers also benefit
greatly from through-wall imaging in time-critical events such
as fire rescue or collapsed buildings. Radio waves can be used
for Radio Detection and Ranging, or RADAR, and are currently
used as a means of locating people in these situations, as radio
waves are able to penetrate walls and may be reflected back to
the radio wave transmitter. If the radio waves are selected to
operate in the correct frequency band, the waves have been shown
to propagate through most common building materials, including
reinforced concrete, concrete block, sheetrock, brick, wood,
plastic, tile, and fiber-glass. Current implementation of this
radar has shown it to be sensitive enough to detect the smallest
of respiratory movements. This is extremely beneficial in
situations such as collapsed buildings, where the human target
may be unconscious.
The
Department of Defence (DoD) has funded a dazzling array of “high
tech” solutions for many of the problems facing our military
forces. In this project, our goal has been to convert “high
tech” DoD capabilities into cost effective tools to help law
enforcement agencies do their jobs better.
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