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Through-Wall Imaging with UWB Radar System

Ing. Michal Aftanas, PhD.

Motivation: A man was interested in knowing of unknown from the very beginning of the human history. Our human eyes help us to investigate our environment by reflection of light. However, wavelengths of visible light allows transparent view through only a very small kinds of materials. On the other hand, Ultra WideBand (UWB) electromagnetic waves with frequencies of few Gigahertz are able to penetrate through almost all types of materials around us. With some sophisticated methods and a piece of luck we are able to investigate what is behind opaque walls. Rescue and security of the people is one of the most promising fields for such applications. Rescue: Imagine how useful can be information about interior of the barricaded building with terrorists and hostages inside for a policemen. The tactics of police raid can be build up on realtime information about ground plan of the room and positions of big objects inside. How useful for the firemen can be information about current interior state of the room before they get inside? Such hazardous environment, full of smoke with zero visibility, is very dangerous and each additional information can make the difference between life and death. Security: Investigating objects through plastic, rubber, dress or other nonmetallic materials could be highly useful as an additional tool to the existing x-ray scanners. Especially it could be used for scanning baggage at the airport, truckloads on borders, dangerous boxes, etc.