Drone mounted scanner can see through walls

Jointly developed by engineers from University of Leeds, University of Massachusetts and Northwestern University in Xi’an in China the so-called WideSee system uses long-range radio waves to scan deep into a building.

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Dr Zheng Wang, Associate Professor in the School of Computing at Leeds, said that the system has considerable advantages over existing wireless systems used by rescue workers. “Heat seeking cameras can identify the heat being radiated from a human body but in a blaze there is a high chance the cameras would be incapable of picking out the heat being generated by someone trapped in the building because of the more intense heat being given off by the fire,” he said.

To develop the system the researchers adapted a commercial wireless radio system called LoRa that was originally designed to connect objects on the Internet of Things, allowing devices on a closed network to share data – such as home appliances like lights or a heating system.