Finding Disaster Victims With A Drone that can Hear - Macarena Varela and Kay Neurenberger, Fraunhofer FKIE

Can a drone listen for missing people?

Macarena Varela is a researcher at Fraunhofer FKIE, a German research organization with 72 institutes spread throughout Germany, each focusing on different fields of applied science.  With 29,000 employees, mostly comprised of scientists and engineers, it is the biggest organization for applied research and development services in Europe.

Macarena has been with Fraunhofer since 2007.  She studied Electrical Engineering at Laval University in Canada and she has a Masters and a PhD in Computer Science at University of Bonn.  Her recent project involves a system that can fly over disaster areas and help pinpoint the sounds of people who are screaming for help.

In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, Macarena talks about the institute’s Crow Nest Array and the use drones equipped with microphones to ring missing people in distress. 

Joining Macarena is Kai Nuernberger who since 2013 has been on the Board of Management at Fraunhofer leading strategy and business development.  Kai Studied Linguistics at University of Berlin, University of Marburg, and University College Wales.  He has a PhD in English Literature at University of Marburg,