Natural disasters such as earthquakes, leading to catastrophic damage to buildings have killed several thousands. The recent one in Nepal killed 8500 and rendered 3.5M homeless. Perhaps, excluding immediate deaths because of falling debris, significant number of lives could have been saved if the first responders could find the locations of survivors quickly. With large scale destruction, there is no possibility to deploy advanced technologies. With lDetect, we explore the possibility of using a low cost, low power, low range sensing and communication technology to locate life under debris. We have designed and prototyped a thermopile based sensor and communication device, which provides information about the presence of survivors on the
smartphones of rescue workers. It can easily be fitted to battery powered toy cars, bugs or any simple robotic platforms. Our evaluation shows that the detection is robust enough under several harsh scenarios and at various ambient temperatures and even with partial exposure of human body. The detection rate using the algorithms is 95% accurate within a range 1.75 m. However, it is still effective up to 3.5 m. In some cases when the ambient temperature is less than 25C, detection rate could be close to even 100% within a range of 1.5 m.
System Requirements:
An Infrared Array Sensor to locate the human presence: Panasonic Grid Eye / Omron D6T
A microcontroller to communicate to the sensor and transmit information to an android phone: nrf51822
An android phone held by the locater standing away from the disaster struck area, receiving the detection information: Any android phone
System Specification:
Weight of the module: 10 gms (excluding robotic platform)
Cost: 30US$ per unit
Form factor: 5cm x 3cm x 0.7cm
Resolution: 8×8
Field of View: 60 x 60 (degrees)
Microcontroller: nrf51822
Sensor: Panasonic Grid Eye / Omron D6T
