NASA Technology Saving Lives in India.....

Some people questions why we spend money on NASA. What do we get out of it? They should ask the four people who were rescued under piles of rubble in the India.

http://www.livescience.com/50779-nepal-earthquake-rescue-te…

Rescuers used a suitcase-size device that detects human breathing and heartbeats with microwave radar signals. The prototype device, called FINDER (Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response), was first tested in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Using FINDER, the team identified two heartbeats beneath each of two different collapsed structures, allowing rescue workers to find and save the men.

Researchers with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, created FINDER to help search and rescue teams quickly find people buried under piles of debris.

The instrument uses low-power microwave radar to sense movement, such as breathing and heartbeats, through concrete and rubble. JPL engineers have tuned the technology to discern the difference between humans and other animals.

JPL's researchers used their data-processing prowess to build software that can isolate the weak signal of a heartbeat. A person's chest moves about 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) from breathing and 0.04 inches (1 millimeter) from a heartbeat — tiny movements similar to detecting the very small changes of motion in a spacecraft.

Here's how the FINDER device works. An operator sets up the instrument in front of a rubble pile and hooks it up to a rugged laptop. It takes about 30 seconds to scan the area with microwaves. FINDER sends a low-powered signal equal to about one-thousandth of a cell phone's microwave output, NASA said. Any movement "reflects" back in the signal. Humans are identified by their unique heartbeat and breathing signals. The longer it takes for the signal to return, the farther away the body is. The system works whether people are awake or unconscious, NASA said.