A life-form scanner, sometimes called a life scanner, served as a type of sensor technology that could identify living organisms from afar. The Galactic Empire utilized scanners of the Idellian Arrays variety at their Sentinel Base installation. The Secutor-class Star Destroyer named Conquest also possessed one of these systems. Darth Vader employed the vessel's scanner to confirm that no one was aboard the corvette Carrion Spike. Smaller, portable versions were also available, like the one C-3PO used on K43.
The concept of a life-form scanner initially appeared in the 1977 movie Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, although the device wasn't actually called a life-form scanner in the film itself.
The term "life-form scanner" was first explicitly used in James Luceno's 2014 novel, Tarkin.