RoboTurk is a great example of technology being used to help save lives. It uses Microsoft technology at the core to perform some very complex tasks.

"RobotTurk is a prototype Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) equipped with a camera that is capable of streaming live video of disaster struck areas to ground command stations. The helicopter carries onboard an eBox compute-unit that runs Microsoft Robotics Studio, allowing the robot to execute specific command issued by ground statation or to auto-fly or safely land. The ground stations utilizes Windows Server 2008 Media Services that capture, process and streams video. The disaster coordination users utilizes Microsoft Virtual Earth as a mapping tool and Silverlight streaming to show the overlaid video on the maps."