NASA, JPL develop low-power radar Finder to locate earthquake survivors

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- In a cellphone video captured In Nepal, a device called Finder is shown. The low-power radar technology was developed by minds at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and NASA.

JPL's Jim Lux is the Finder project task manager.

"The finder is a really low power radar. It detects human heartbeats of victims that are buried in earthquake rubble," he said. "In a large scale disaster like Nepal or in Haiti, you have a lot of collapsed structures. It's important to know which ones have somebody alive in them so you can put a secondary search team in to rescue them."

Four victims who were buried alive in the community were saved thanks to Finder. In testing, Finder has found heartbeats buried in at least 30 feet of rubble and 20 feet of solid concrete, Lux said. For the four rescued in Nepal, he said they were buried about 10 to 15 feet deep in rubble.

It was space technology that led to the Finder's ability. They are experts at satellites, radar and finding things.

"This is what we do. We look at what's happening on Mars or on Jupiter and we also look at the Earth's surface from space. So we're used to looking for small things from a long distance away," Lux said.

JPL officials said the technology only weighs about 20 pounds and can be carried in something the size of a small suitcase.