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ISBN NO : 378 - 26 - 138420 - 8

Development of Sensing Device to Detect

Persons Hiding in a Car
1

Mohammed Sanaullah Shareef.M.Y, 2Mohammed Tharique.PM

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,
C.Abdul Hakeem College of Engineering and Technology
1
sanaullahshareef786@gmail.com, ,
1
+919944738419.

1,2,3

and places a heavywork load on border ofcers, resulting

in high costs in view ofthe thousands of vehicles that
cross the borders. Alternatives tothis manual method have
been considered, such as the X-rayequipment used to
check vehicles and their cargo [4] and theuse of a mobile
inspection robot [5]. However, these methodsrequire a
high initial cost as well as a large setup area. Moreover,
danger of using the X-ray method for nding illegal
immigrants is indicated because the illegal immigrants
would beexposed to X-ray [6]. A simpler method, which
uses microvibrations to detect a concealed person, has
been proposed [7].We also presented a similar method
that detects heartbeat signals by means of a piezoceramic
device set under the tire of avehicle [8]. These methods,
however, are sensitive not only tohuman micro vibrations
but also to external disturbances such asground vibration
and wind force acting on the vehicle.
This paper describes a novel pneumatic method that uses
silicon air tubes and a low-frequency condenser
microphone asa pressure sensor highly sensitive to the
heartbeat signals of aperson hiding in a vehicle but robust
against external disturbances such as ground vibration and
wind force.

AbstractThis paper describes a novel method for detecting

the presence of a person hiding in a car. One of the
important strategies of homeland security is border control.
In particular, strict and effective monitoring to control
illegal immigration is a key strategy for maintaining public
safety and a healthy local economy, and is essential for
preventing the entry of terrorists. Here, we focused on

developing a method to detect a person trying to

illegally cross the border by hiding in a car. The
proposed method is based on pneumatics. A silicon
tube (inner diameter 4 mm) with one end plugged by a
highly sensitive pressure sensor and the other end
capped is sandwiched between two rigid boards and
placed on the ground at the entrance gate of the
border. When one wheel of the car is on the board and
the engine is stopped, the pressure sensor can detect
human vital signs such as the heartbeat, which cannot
be concealed. Due to the high sensitivity of the
pressure sensor, consideration was given to the effect
of external disturbances such as ground vibration and
wind force acting on the car. Here, we propose a
heartbeat detection lter robust against disturbances
but sensitive to the heartbeat signal and an index to
discriminate between the presence and non-presence
of a person, and we present the experimental results
obtained using the proposed method under various
disturbance conditions.
Index TermsAutomobile, condensermicrophone,
security, silicon tube.

II. DESIGN OF SENSING DEVICE

A. Principle of the Sensing Device Using Silicon Tube
andCondenser Microphone
Fig. 1 shows the principle of the sensing device used to
measure themicro vibrations. The silicon tube is set
between exiblespacers on the base board. At one end of
the tube is the low-frequency condenser microphone used
as the pressure sensor, andthe other end of the tube is
capped. A cover board is placed ontop of the tube and
exible spacers. When one wheel of the caris on the board
and the engine is stopped, and if there is a personhiding
inside the car, the vibration from the persons
heartbeatwill be transmitted through the car chassis,
wheel, tire, coverboard, and nally to the silicon tubes and
spacers. Displacementcaused by the vibrating cover board
compresses the silicon tubesand spacers, which decreases
the crosssection area of the tubeand increases the air
pressure in the tube. The pressure sensordetects the
change in pressure. The pressure change is producednot
only by the heartbeat but also by the resonance
frequencycomponent of the car chassis fromthe dynamic
pressure of windacting against the car and the movement
of a person changingposition.

I. INTRODUCTION
ILLEGAL immigration from neighboring countries is a
serious problem from the viewpoint of homeland security
and crime prevention. In the United States, the number of
illegal immigrants exceeds 1,20,00,000 [1]. In bordering
countries, illegal immigration is frequently attempted via
ground vehicles such as cars and trucks in which one or
more persons are hidden under the seats, in the engine
compartment or in spaces carved out of the dashboard [2].
In one case, an officer of the Arizona State Border Control
found 13 people hiding in a van disguised as a transport
truck [3]. Accurate devices to quickly and easily nd
people hiding in vehicles are necessary to maintain strict
border control as well as make the legal immigration
procedure more effective.
Generally, a border officer checks the inside and/or
outside of a vehicle to determine if anyone is hiding there.
The inspectionis a visual search, which is time-consuming

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S[m2]surface upon which the force acts;

K[N/(m2)]spring constant of the silicon tube
ratio of specic heat;
Ththreshold for discriminating between
presenceand non-presence of person;
The total force acting on the surface of the tube is given
by

(1)

Fig. 1. Principle of the microvibration sensing

device using silicon tubes.

Fig. 3. Signal processing ow for extracting fh(t)

andfb(t)components.
As the change in the state of air in the tube is adiabatic,
the relationship between the pressurep(t) and the volume
v(t)is given by Poissons law as follows:
(2)
Total differentiation of (2) forp(t) is given by

Fig. 2. Mathematical model of air tube with

condenser microphone.

(3)
By lettingP(t)=P0,V(t)=V0,dv(t)=Sx(t),f(t)=Sdp(t)then (2)
can be rewritten as

B. Mathematical Model of the Silicon Tube and

CondenserMicrophone
We considered a mathematical model for the sensing
device depicted in Fig. 1, Fig. 2 shows a schematic model
of the device. The variables and constants for themodel
are dened as follows:
t[s]continuous time;
K discrete time by sampling interval ;
T[s]total measurement time;
Po[Pa]steady-state pressure in the tube;
p(t)[Pa]change in pressure
P(t)[Pa]pressure with change in pressure ;
V0[m3]air volume of the tube under steadystatepressure;
v(t)[m3] total air volume in the tube with
change involume
fh(t)[N] force acting on the tube due to human
heartbeat;
fb(t)[N] force acting on the tube due to body
movement;
fc(t)[N]force acting on the tube due to
resonancevibration of the car chassis;
n(t)[N]force acting on the tube due to random
noise
f(t)[N]total force acting on the tube;
x(t)[m]surface displacement due to total force
e(t)[V]output voltage from the pressure
sensor

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(4)
Equation (4) shows the characteristics of the air spring of
thesilicon tube. On the other hand, the silicon tube itself
has stiffness with spring constant K. Thus, from (3) or (4),
the changein pressure in the tube due to the total force is
given by
(5)
Thus, from (5) above, the coefficient
*
which
corresponds to thecross-sectional area that relates the
external force to the tubeand the internal pressure, is a
function of the contactingarea S. Thecoefficient increases
in proportion to S forthe range
,
whereas for the range
, it
decreases in proportion to S. Thesilicon tube is exible
and thus the spring constant K issmall, smaller than that
of the air spring. Then, the coefficientincreases in
proportion to S the contacting area . Thus, toobtain a
larger coefficient, we must make the contacting area S
wider and reduce the spring constant of the tube and
spacer. Torealize these conditions, the spacer must be as
soft
as
possibleto

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ISBN NO : 378 - 26 - 138420 - 8

make the contacting area wider; the tube is pressed not

onlyby the upper plate but also by the side spacer, as
shown in thefront view in Fig. 1.

sensor. Sensitivity is 10 mV/Pa withat-gain

characteristics for the frequency range of 0.1 Hz to 10kHz,
allowing the detection of heartbeat and body movement.

C. Signal Processing Flow

The pressure expressed in (5) is detected by the
condensermicrophone acting as a highly sensitive pressure
sensor. Outputvoltage e(t) from the sensor includes various
vibration forces asgiven by (1). Fig. 3 shows how to
extract the force components
fh(t)andfb(t), which are the vital signs of a person hiding
inthe car. The fundamental frequency of the adult human
heartbeat is around 0.7 to 3.0 Hz. However, the frequency
range alsocovers part of the mechanical vibration
component fc(t)of thechassis, which must be distinguished
from the heartbeat. Theheartbeat includes higher harmonic
components of up to severalhundred Hz.We monitored the
higher harmonic components of8 to 12 Hz with a relatively
high spectrumand less noise and discriminated the
components by means of a band pass lter. Thecomponent
is rectied and smoothed using a band pass lterwitha
cutoff frequency of 0.5 and 2.0 Hz, which yields a shift
backto the fundamental frequency range. The other vital
sign,fb(t) for body movement, is much greater than the
heartbeat and thuscan be directly detected. The output
voltage from the pressure sensor is an A-D converted with
the sampling time andexpressed by e(k) for the discrete
time .

Fig. 4.Sensing device for verication experiment.

D. Index for Judging Human Presence

Here, we dene the index for judging whether or not a
personis present in the car. In the ltering process in Fig.
3, the disturbance componentsfc(t) and n(t) are ltered out.
Thus, the standard deviation of the output signal becomes
greater whena person is present compared to when no one
is present. Thus,the simple standard deviation of can serve
as the index:

(6)
The presence of aperson is discriminated by comparing the
index with thethreshold .

Fig. 5. Experimental conditions for Case 1.

The cover board is made of polycarbonate with a thickness
of 5 mm.

III. VERIFICATION EXPERIMENT

A. Measurement System for Verication Experiment
Fig. 4 shows the sensing device used in the verication
experiments. Forty-eight rectangular shaped spacers with
dimensions 400*30*10 mm are set on the base board. The
spacersare made of a soft, sponge-type material. Six
silicon tubes, each
with a pressure sensor, are set among the spacers. The
tubescover the entire area of the board and are compressed
by verticaland horizontal forces, as shown in the front
view in Fig. 1. Sincesilicon tubes are softer and more
exible and durable than vinylchloride tubes, the spring
constant K of the tube and spaceris smaller and the
sensitivity becomes high. A low-frequencymicrophone
(MX-E4758) was selected as thehighly sensitive pressure
. As shown in Fig. 5, we placed a blower 1 m away from a
sedan-type car to blow air at different strengths: strong 132

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B. Measurement Procedures
In order to verify the validity of the sensing method, we
carried out the experiment for two cases using the sensing
device shown in Fig. 4. We let T=2.56s and t=10ms and
acquired data 40 times and calculated index F for each
experimental condition.
(Case 1) Verication experiment for robustness against
wind and vibration.
In practical case, this system might be used outdoors. In
that case, the chassis is shaken by thewind and itmight
cause a factor of the error for judgment. Hence, we veried
the robustness ofthe system against the wind

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ISBN NO : 378 - 26 - 138420 - 8

m3/min, medium 102 m3/min, weak 72 m3/min and none.

We compared how index F changed depending on whether
or not a person wasin the car.
(Case 2) Ability to detect a person in a camper with
varioushiding places.

Fig.

6.

Experimental conditions for Case 2.

Fig. 7.Heartbeat vibration from a person in the car
(no wind). (a) Output from the sensing
device. (b) Result of FFT.

As shown inFig. 6, we checked for the presence of

peoplein a camper,where there are various hiding places.
The sensing plate was set under the front left-side wheel.
One or two persons were hiding in the drivers seat and the
assistant drivers seat, rear cabin, or roof.With no one in
the vehicle, we measured the output signal when there
were no people around the car and when there were many
people in the vicinity of the car.

calculated is F=0.81.Fig. 8(a) for the wave whenno one is

in the car, shows a smaller signal level than that of Fig.
7(a). Furthermore, Fig. 8(b) has no conspicuous spectrum
as seen in Fig. 7(b) but a small spectrum extends over a
wide range. The value of index F=0.012 in this wave.
Index Fwhen a person was in the car is 25 times greater
than when no one was in the car.
Fig. 9 shows the histogram for index Funder four different
wind conditions when a person was in the car. Fig. 10
shows the histogram under the same wind conditions but
with no one in the car.

IV. RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENT

A. Robustness Experiments in Case 1
Fig. 7 shows the output signal e(k) and its Fourier
transform by FFT when a person was in the car and there
was no wind. Fig. 8 shows the resultswhen no one was in
the car and there was no wind. Fig. 7(a) shows the periodic
wave with the same period as the heartbeat of the person.
Fig. 7(b) shows thefundamentaland higher components of
theheartbeat. For the signal in Fig. 7, the index

Fig. 8.Car vibration (no one in the car, no wind).

(a) Output from the sensing device.
(b) Result of FFT.

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camper is greater than that for the sedan. Fig. 11(b) shows
the histogram when a person is in the assistantdrivers seat.
The distribution range is almost the same as thatof Fig.
11(a), but the distribution uctuation range is narrower
than in the case of a person sitting in the drivers seat. This
is because the sensing device board is just under the
assistant drivers seat, where the person was sitting. Fig.
11(c) shows the results when two people are sitting in the
rear cabin.

Fig. 9. Histogram of index F when a person was in

the car.
In Fig. 9, when a person was in the car, despite the strength
of wind blowing, index F is distributed in the range from
0.20 to 0.40; whereas in Fig. 10 with no one in the car,
index F is distributed from 0.015 to 0.21. The frequency in
the histogram increases in medium wind of 102 m/min and
strong wind of 132 m /min due to the vibration caused by
the wind. These gures show the clear difference in the
histograms of the index F between the presence and the
absence of persons inthecar, despite the wind blowing at
different strengths. Therefore, we consider that this system
is robust over the wind and can be used outdoors.

Fig.
10. Histogram of index Fwhen no one was in
the car.
B. Results of Case 2
Fig. 11(a)(d) shows the histogram of the index when one
person or two persons are (a) in the drivers seat of the
camper,(b) in the assistant drivers seat, (c) in a seat in the
back cabin, and (d) on the roof. Fig. 11(e) is the histogram
of the index
when no one was in the car and no one was walking near
the car, and when many people were walking in the
vicinity of the car, as shown in the photo in Fig. 11(e). In
the histogram in Fig. 11(a), index F is distributed from
0.02 to 0.40, which are lower values compared to that of
the sedan-type car. This is because the distance between
the sensing device board and the seating position in the

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Fig.
11.Histogram of index for Case 2.
(a) Drivers seat. (b) Assistant drivers

seat. (c) Seat in rear cabin. (d) On the roof.

(e) No person in the car.

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The histogramdistribution of the index ranges from 0.15

to 0.20, which is lowerthan that in Fig. 11(a) and (b). This
is due to the greater distance between the sensing device
and the seats in the rear cabin. Fig. 11(d) shows the results
when a person is on the roof. The distribution is similar
than that in Fig. 11(c), but more widely spread because
the roof is an unstable location resulting in frequent body
movements. Fig. 11(e) shows the results when no one was
in the car and there were either weak or strong disturbance
vibrations. The distribution is similar to that shown in Fig.
10 when no one was in the sedan-type car. The most
frequent distribution is concentrated around F=0.015.
From the histograms in Fig. 11(a)(e), index F decreases
in proportion to the distance between the persons position
and the sensing device board. This is because the signal
attenuates in proportion to the distance. However, when a
person is in the car, even a slight body movement
provides a greater value of index .Thus, the distribution is
more widely spread than when no one is in the car. Even
with the difference in histogram distribution due to the
different cars and hiding positions, there was still a clear
difference in distribution when people were in the car and
when no one was in the car. Index F can be used to
discriminate between the presence and nonpresence of
people in a car being inspected.

Fig.
12. Cumulative frequency distribution of
index F for Case 1 (presence) and Case 2
(non-presence).
In this system, we used heartbeat signal. Actually, there
are other bio-signals such as breath, but the frequency of
the heartbeat and those of breath are different. As shown
in Fig. 3, we extract only the band width of the heartbeat
frequency by signal processing for the index. In general,
humans cannot stop heartbeat consciously regardless of
the breathing status. Therefore, breathing and other biosignals whose frequencies are different from that of
heartbeat do not affect
the judgments of
thesystem.Furthermore, even if animals are hidden in the
vehicle, this system is capable of detecting their presences
if the forces of the heartbeats or the motions of the
animals are as strong as human heartbeats.
This system can detect if at least one person is hiding or
notin the vehicle. So the system does not detect how many
persons are hiding in the vehicle. In a real scene at border
security, border officers require the drivers and all fellow
passengers to get out of the vehicles. In this condition, if
the system nds at least one person hiding in the vehicle,
the vehicle and the parties including the drivers and all
fellow passengers should be investigated more strictly by
the border ofcers. Hence, we consider that role of this
system is not to nd how many persons are hiding in the
vehicles, but to nd out atleast one person hiding in the
vehicle.
Regarding detection time, the X-ray method requires
shortertime than this system, but [6] indicates the danger
of using the X-ray method for nding illegal immigrants
because of their exposure to X-ray. This system needs
more detection time than X-ray because the system
requires the drivers and all fellow passengers to get out of
the vehicles, but compared with the hands-on searching
by border ofcers, the system can reducethe detection
time without the dangers such as the exposure to
radiation.

V. DISCUSSIONS
From the histograms in Figs. 911, we considered how to
set a threshold Thfor judging the presence or non-presence
of a person hiding in the car. Fig. 12 shows the
cumulative frequency distribution of index F for Case 1
(presence) and Case2 (non-presence). Both the sedan-type
car and the camper show a similar tendency when no one
was in the car even under conditions of blowing wind and
external ground vibration. The distribution when a person
was in the sedan begins to increase fromF=0.12.Here, we
decided the threshold so that the cumulative frequency
distribution for non-presence would be over 90%. Then,
for the camper, the threshold valueTh=0.08,i.e., ifthere
might be people hiding in the vehicle, and forthe sedantype car Th=0.12, i.e., if F>0.12, there might be people
hiding. For both the sedan and camper, if index F is less
than 0.12, there is a 90% probability that no one is hiding
inthe vehicle. The results did not perfectly discriminate
between the presence and non-presence of a person due to
the disturbance from the dynamic pressure of wind and
ground vibration. If the inspection was conducted in a
closed area with less vibration, the judgment accuracy
would be improved. Nonetheless, by identifying the high
probability of a concealed person, a more detailed
inspection could be carried out and vice versa, which
would make the inspection procedure more efficient.

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VI. CONCLUSION
This paper describes a novel method for detecting the
presence of a person hiding in a car. This pneumatic
method uses silicon tubes and highly sensitive pressure
sensors to monitor the vibrations from human vital signs.
The employment of a low frequency condenser
microphone as the pressure sensor provides sufficient
sensitivity to detect the signals from human vital signs
transmitted to one of the wheels of the car. From the
ltered sensing signal, an index using the standard
deviation of the signal is presented to discriminate

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between the presence and non-presence of a person in

the car. The validity of the proposed method was
examined using a sedan-type car and a camper. For both
vehicles, when no one was in the car, distribution of the
indexwas concentrated in the lowrange. For the sedan,
the index when a person was in the car was clearly
greater than that when no one was in the car. For the
camper with a concealed person, the signal level
decreased in proportion to the distance between the
position of the person and the sensor location.
Furthermore, the body movements of a concealed
person enhanced index.
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