An international team of rescuers found and saved four men trapped in a rubble in Nepal, thanks to NASA's advanced heartbeat detection technology, according to an article published on Tuesday by NASA.

NASA sent two units of FINDER or Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response prototypes to Nepal following the earthquake on April 25 and tested it for the first time.

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"For me as the developer of the technology, it was like sending a child off to college," project director at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Jim Lux said.

The equipment was the size of a hand carry bag and was able to detect survivors up to ten feet beneath the rubble. It saved two groups of men trapped under collapsed buildings, the report said.

Powered by lithium battery, FINDER works by sending out low-power microwaves, which then detect subtle movements, like that of a pulse or a heartbeat.

It only needs a person's pulse to detect survivors in contrast to other traditional rescue tools that need the victims to be conscious to locate them.

FINDER's waves can penetrate into solid concrete up to 20 feet (6 meters) and up to 30 feet (9 meters) into deep rubble.

The technology running FINDER was originally created for astronomy - to sense and locate other planets. Seeing its other practical uses, two companies licensed and developed it as a search and rescue equipment. A unit sells for US$15,000, reports said.

While Lux's team is still fine-tuning the equipment, anti-poaching groups in South Africa requested that they do not sell them to likely poachers who could use the technology to detect hiding animals.

Meanwhile, search and rescue operations continue in Nepal. Lux expressed confidence that they could still find other survivors using FINDER, but others were doubtful since it has been 12 days.

TagsNepal, NASA, FINDER, earthquake, Disaster, technology