Remote Personnel Assessment

Individuals posing safety and security threats, or those intent on subterfuge and deception during interrogation, often exhibit abnormal values of key vital signs: heartbeat rate, respiration rate, and galvanic skin response (GSR). Technology is needed to cost-effectively measure these parameters while a subject is moving or non-cooperative, preferably without contacting the subject and without the subject’s knowledge. Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes the development of an integrated standoff sensor that measures the three vital signs from up to 35 meters away by adapting its existing battery-powered near infrared (NIR) platform technology. Respiration is to be measured by Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) of exhaled CO2, GSR is to be measured by Diffuse Reflectance Absorbance Spectroscopy (DRAS) of skin surface moisture (sweat) associated with galvanic response, and heart rate is to be measured by Laser Doppler Vibrometry (LDV). The Phase I effort will demonstrate the feasibility of each measurement and provide a configuration for the integrated sensor that will conduct the three measurements.