Keywords
Citation
(2003), "Life Sensor venture to commercialise Russian Military Technology", Sensor Review, Vol. 23 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2003.08723bab.004
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited
Life Sensor venture to commercialise Russian Military Technology
Life Sensor venture to commercialise Russian Military Technology
Keywords: Microwaves, Hazardous environment, Sensors
Early in Japanese fiscal year 2003-04, Japanese and Russian companies will set up an entity called Life Sensor, named after its main product, with an initial capitalisation of about $87.5 million. Investors will include the Tokyo-based ART Laboratory, which offers advanced Russian technology to several Japanese firms, as well as the Japanese company, the Syswave Corporation, of Kanagawa Prefecture, alongside Tokyo, which designs and manufactures design system chips.
By this year's end, Life Sensor will boost capital through a third party allocation of shares with BMT Management, a major Russian investment house, buying about $350,000 worth of shares. The firm will first commercialise a device that can detect the location of objects buried under debris during disasters, by resort to microwaves to pick up the sounds of breathing and heartbeats. The technology, developed by a state-run corporation of the former Soviet Union, was originally designed to detect hidden snipers and missing soldiers.
The device measures 36 x 27 x 9.7 cm and weighs just 4 kg. Connected to a personal computer, it shows the location of people from up to 10 m away and distinguishes them from other living beings.
The Life Sensor firm has obtained a basic patent for the know how in both US and Russia and has applied for patents in Japan and in both Eastern and Western Europe. The device is sold for less than $82,600, targeting local governments and the Fire and Defense Management Agency in Tokyo.
A similar government device is already available in Japan but can only detect the direction, not the distance, of people. In addition it costs $190,000 and weighs 69 kg.
Life Sensor will apply the technology to enter larger markets in the welfare and security fields. It plans to ally itself with major security and other firms to develop such products as security alarm sensors and low cost sensors to detect breathing in the bedridden elderly and infants.