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Breath Detector To Help Find Earthquake Survivors
bazzalunatic writes "With all the recent earthquakes, this 'human-sniffing' device couldn't be more timely. Developed in the UK, the new machine detects the breath and sweat of survivors trapped in rubble. It's better than sniffer dogs, and could reduce the risk to them. From the article: 'The sensor technology was shown to accurately detect human-generated carbon dioxide and ammonia in air that wafted through gaps in the rubble during testing, something that previously only dogs could do, as other technologies focus more heavily on seeing or hearing a survivor.'"
It's a very neat machine that will definately save lives.
After being trapped in rubble for too long, there would be serious concerns about the amount of CO2 the person has inhaled as well as the length of their immobility. Too much CO2 in the system has been suggested as a cause of subluxation as has a sedentary lifestyle.
The link to CO2 was made several years ago by a Doctor who noticed several of his more frequent visitors came in with "Big Gulps". Many drank diet drinks yet still had vertebreal subluxations, that eliminates the HFCS from the equation (not that you should take that garbage in).
The sole link seemed to be the huge amounts of carbonation in the drinks which gets right into the system and causes nerve damage/blockage/subluxation. The Doctor actually submitted his findings to the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research.
After pulling people from the rubble and making sure they have no broken bones or internal damage, I'd hope that they would be rushed to a Chiropractor who would assess and treat the damage caused by excessive CO2 inhalation and immobility.
Take care,
Bob
Chiropractic Saves Lives!
Late seems more appropriate. Wouldn't timely suggest it was available for use during the actual earthquakes? ...or perhaps san fran is next?
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
keep, and I won't and sold in the unless you can work of programming waS at the same2 Thing for the BSD had become
...technology for skynet to use when hunting us in the future. Keep up the good work!
So when a building falls on you, you are supposed to urinate in your pants so they can find you with this ammonia sniffer thing? Or is there really enough ammonia in sweat for this to detect it?
Military applications coming in 3...2...1...
Normally I ascribe all life to intelligent design, but in your case I'll make an exception.
and since practically everyone nowadays carry sophisticated personal radio beacons (aka "cell phones") that periodically transmit uniquely identifiable (on a per device basis) signals, I'm surprised no one has jumped on using this as a way of sensing where the people are.
It's better than sniffer dogs
Highly misleading. It eliminates dangers to the dogs/handlers and simplifies logistics; the article doesn't even imply that the device is more effective than dogs. It also points out that dogs are more agile and will still be more useful in areas where the machine or its human operator can't easily go (which I imagine will be a lot of places, considering that they're *digging through rubble*).
There are dogs out there that can detect cancer, for Christ sake; don't be so quick to dismiss biology in favor of technology, especially considering that a merging of the two is probably our next great frontier.
P.S. If any suspicious or sardonic person out there wants to argue that cancer dogs are some stupid myth, read the studies cited in this wikipedia article: they may be small studies, but I'm not inclined to doubt a study of a diagnostic tool showing a specificity >90% until I see a directly contrary scientific result or a damn good argument about the design of the original study.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canine_cancer_detection
I'd be willing to bet that there's a number of easier to smell things than CO2 "wafting" up out of rubble with a survivor that's been in there for days.
Lets drop the PC talk and get down to brass tacks. By day 3 any survivor is going to be quite ripe in a number of ways and their bad breath is going to be the last thing you notice.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I bet dogs are a lot cheaper than snifferbots.
In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice, they're not.
In Texas they would pull you out then give you a ticket for Dying While Intoxicated.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
More like breath detector to help skynet find living humans to eradicate....
...this 'human-sniffing' device couldn't be more un-timely!
They invented a bigger mosquito. Just what the world needs.
Sounds like an improved version of the detectors used to find illegal immigrants hidden in trucks. If it works It'll probably see much more use by customs that the rescue people.
We can begin recovering from the Virginia earthquake that devastated us all. Never forget 8/23/2011!
come on, our breath can't be that bad... then again.....
...though they may not be as cheap.
Two words: radioactive mosquitos.
Kudos to the team who produced this
Its a nice technology for a good purpose, though still couldn't resist...- now try reading it with "earthquake" replaced by "human extermination effort" !