Abstract
Identifying the vital states of trapped survivors during post-disaster rescue missions can result in improved rescue strategies and provide injury pre-diagnosis information. The most effective rescue method is the use of bio-radar based non-contact measurements. Presently, bio-radar techniques focus on detecting and locating. Herein, a method to identify vital states with an ultra-wideband bio-radar is proposed, while simulating a trapped condition with Beagle dogs. This investigation revealed three vital stages under the trapped condition: normal, transitioning, and agonal stages. Upon entering the transitioning stage, the heartrates were apparently high, and the respiratory rates increased sharply. The temperatures dropped rapidly once passing this stage. In particular, the respiratory waveforms from the bio-radar frequently change from a normal sine like curve to an “M” like curve within the transitioning stage. The accurate beginning and ending of the transitioning stage are defined by a newly proposed indicator of relative occurrence frequency. Pathological observations indicated that the fragmentation of lamellar bodies within type II alveolar cells caused the insufficiency of the lung surfactant, and further resulted in the occurrence of the “M” like curves. This pioneering work realizes the vital states identification only using a non-contact ultra-wideband bio-radar, thereby enables to infer the health conditions, life expectancy, and appropriate subsequent treatment of victims in the trapped condition. Therefore, it has the potential to promote the welfare of post-disaster trapped human victims.
Highlights
Disasters such as earthquakes, mining accidents, and landslides usually cause a significant amount of damage, especially in heavily populated areas [1], [2]
All vital signs, including the respirations that were monitored by the non-contact UWB bio-radar and the synchronized piezoelectric respiratory belt transducer, the ECG signals, anal temperatures, and weights were recorded every 12 hours, at 9 A.M. and 9 P.M., respectively
To reflect and identify the vital states scientifically and objectively, other physiological indicators such as ECG, anal temperature, and weight were recorded through traditional contact measurements
Summary
Disasters such as earthquakes, mining accidents, and landslides usually cause a significant amount of damage, especially in heavily populated areas [1], [2]. Victims in these disasters are usually buried under the ruins, and they are unable to communicate with the outside world. Different from other non-contact measurements such as infrared and optical sensors, ultra-wideband (UWB) bio-radar is the most effective searching method mainly due to its advantages in penetrating obstacles and robustness to a variety of weather and light conditions [3]–[8]. Non-contact monitoring of vital signs at in-home
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