The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has delivered the Detect Presence of Life (DepLife™) technology to industry partner MaXentric Technologies LLC. MaXentric will make this first responder solution available to law enforcement agencies across the United States. DepLife™ enables agents and officers to easily and safely identify whether any individuals are inside a room when direct line-of-sight is not an option.
S&T funded the radar-based DepLife™ capability and developed it in collaboration with Fort Lee, New Jersey-based MaXentric, which is currently producing the first set of commercial units available to law enforcement agencies interested in purchasing them.
“DepLife™ provides first responders with critical intelligence and situational awareness, while reducing their risk of incurring physical harm,” said Acting Under Secretary for Science and Technology Julie Brewer. “This technology could support serving search warrants, searching for trafficked individuals, or even potential hostage situations.”
S&T’s First Responder Resource Group originally identified the need for a hands-free version of this kind of tool. Commercialization of DepLife™ follows successful field assessments conducted last fall.
“We engaged with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies over an eight-week period to deploy and test DepLife™ in various operational scenarios,” said First Responder Technology Program Manager Anthony Caracciolo. Feedback from the agencies helped S&T and MaXentric finetune the tool before placing it in the hands of first responders nationwide.
DepLife™ will also complement other S&T-developed detection and tracking technologies, such as the SDS Outdoor outside gunshot detection system and MappedIn Maker, giving first responders a more holistic situational view so that they can coordinate their plans accordingly.
For more details on how the technology “sees” through walls, as well as additional S&T first responder research and development efforts, listen to the latest episode of S&T’s Technologically Speaking podcast with Caracciolo: There’s a Good Chance You’re Gonna Save Lives.
The original announcement can be found here.