Guides
Start here.
Written for the people who make the call at the door and for anyone who wants to know what this technology can and cannot do.
Guide 01 · The basics
What Is Through Wall Sensing? A Guide for Public Safety
The five answers and the four room states. How it differs from cameras and thermal imaging. The legal basis and the limits.
Read the guide →Guide 02 · Rescue
Through Wall Sensing for Search and Rescue
Where it helps on a rescue scene and how it fits the search plan. The conditions that limit it and how emergency sessions are recorded.
Read the guide →Guide 03 · Readings
Presence of Life Detection Through Walls: What It Can and Cannot Tell You
What a reading means and what it does not. How to use the confidence and why a no read is never a clear.
Read the guide →Reference pages
The detail behind the guides.
Capabilities
Five answers for every room
Presence and movement. Breathing when conditions allow. Count and confidence.
See the capabilities →Limits
Honest about what it cannot see
The conditions that lower confidence and what to do in each one.
Read the limits →Governance
Authorized before it opens. Sealed when it closes.
The lawful basis and the named supervisor. The record no one can edit.
See governance →Search and rescue
Find the ones who cannot call for help
Room by room reads for structure fires and collapse. Storm damage and welfare checks too.
See Vantage for rescue →Law enforcement
Know the room before the door
Barricades and hostage response. High risk warrants under a recorded basis.
See Vantage for law enforcement →Policy
Responsible Use Policy
Who may use Vantage and the basis every session requires. What is prohibited.
Read the policy →Public sources
Worth reading in the original.
Federal research and the two Supreme Court decisions that shape this field. The descriptions are our own short summaries. None of these sources reviewed or endorses Vantage.
- Detection of Presence of Life (DePLife) Prototype Operational Field Assessment Report. DHS Science and Technology Directorate (2023). Police officers and firefighters tested a prototype in the field for finding people behind walls. They said missed detections and false alarms did the most to lower their trust in it.
- Through-the-Wall Sensors for Law Enforcement: Market Survey. National Institute of Justice (2012). An early federal survey of what these tools could and could not do for firefighting, collapse rescue and tactical teams.
- Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27 (2001). Using technology not in general public use to learn details inside a home is a search.
- Brigham City v. Stuart, 547 U.S. 398 (2006). Officers may enter a home without a warrant to help someone seriously injured or in imminent danger.
Vantage · resources
Ask us what the guides do not cover.
Agencies can request a private briefing. Everyone else can write to us and we will answer plainly.