Electronic Rescue Dog? Sensors Can Detect People Buried by Earthquakes and Avalanches by Smell
ETH Zurich scientists have developed the smallest and cheapest ever equipment for detecting people by smell. It could be used in the search for people buried by an earthquake or avalanche.
Trained rescue dogs are still the best disaster workers – their sensitive noses help them to track down people buried by earthquakes or avalanches. Like all living creatures, however, dogs need to take breaks every now and again. They are also often not immediately available in disaster areas, and dog teams have to travel from further afield.
Tracking dogs are often used after earthquakes, as they are able to use their sensitive noses to locate people.
Photograph: Shutterstock
A new measuring device from researchers at ETH Zurich led by Sotiris Pratsinis, Professor of Process Engineering, however, is always ready for use. The scientists had previously developed small and extremely sensitive gas sensors for acetone, ammonia, and isoprene – all metabolic products that we emit in low concentrations via our breath or skin. The researchers have now combined these sensors in a device with two commercial sensors for CO2 and moisture.
As shown by laboratory tests in collaboration with Austrian and Cypriot scientists, this sensor combination can be quite useful when searching for entrapped people. The researchers used a test chamber at the University of Innsbruck’s Institute for Breath Research in Dornbirn as an entrapment simulator. Volunteers each remained in this chamber for two hours.
The researchers also showed that there are differences between the compounds emitted via our breath and skin. “Acetone and isoprene are typical substances that we mostly breathe out. Ammonia, however, is usually emitted through the skin,” explains ETH professor Pratsinis. In the experiments in the entrapment simulator, the participants wore a breathing mask. In the first part of the experiment, the exhaled air was channelled directly out of the chamber; in the second part, it remained inside. This allowed the scientists to create separate breath and skin emission profiles.
Contacts and sources:
Citation: Sniffing Entrapped Humans with Sensor Arrays
Güntner AT, Pineau NJ, Mochalski P, Wiesenhofer H, Agapiou A, Mayhew CA, Pratsinis SE: . Analytical Chemistry, doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b00237
Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2018/05/electronic-rescue-dog-sensors-can.html
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