Inventors have some answers to the airline safety question

Malaysian inventors received a US patent in 1997 for a system that collects "biometric" data -- a palm print, facial scan, iris pattern or even the unique shape of one's ear -- from each passenger and digitally records it on a luggage tag and boarding pass.

"At the security checkpoint, the passenger is requested to interact with the biometrics data input device while also inserting the boarding pass into the improved security identification document interface device," they say in their patent description. No match, no go.

Guenter Schaefer of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was awarded a patent in 1999 for an electronic "capsule" that can receive, store and transmit a specific code. The capsule would be placed in each passenger's luggage, and the passenger would carry a boarding pass with a corresponding code. Luggage would not be placed on a commercial aircraft until the boarding pass code and the luggage "capsule" link up through a brief radio handshake.

Schaefer also has a patent for a "smart pill" that a passenger would swallow. "Resistant to stomach acids," the pill would contain a battery, antenna, microprocessor and whatever else it needs to communicate with the traveler's bags.

In the event of a crash, he noted, identification data stored in the pill could be used to identify remains, a system that he noted currently depends on such clues as "a fragment of skin with a partial tattoo, a trace of a prescription drug or a tooth with a filling."

Noting that priceless rescue time and effort often is spent searching for victims who turn out to have already died, a German inventor has patented a system that he says uses exceedingly low-frequency "signals" emitted by living bodies to locate victims at the site of a disaster.

Gerd Jeuergen Schmidt of Frankfurt said he had discovered that heart beat and respiration cause a living body to send these "signals," somewhat like radio waves, for a distance of around 3m. His patent describes a device he says can detect the signals, alerting rescuers to the presence of a living human being.