Cargo Business Techwire

Friday, July 17, 2015

Acoustic sensor can help curb human smuggling

A number of smugglers sneak living, breathing humans illegally into a country by hiding them inside trucks, train compartments or shipping containers.

It's not easy to detect people behind metal, especially if they keep really, really still, but Franklin Felber from San Diego scientific consulting company Starmark believes he's found a possible solution.

Felber has developed an acoustic sensor sensitive

enough to detect a person's breathing from behind metal walls, after testing off-the-shelf options that didn't quite work. His $10,000-per-unit system uses a hammer-like acoustic transducer, which bangs repeatedly against a thin metal plate that’s designed to be attached to one of the container's walls.

For more of the Engadget.com story: www.engadget.com