A Canadian company says it has developed a system that can
automatically detect multiple kinds of security threats passing through
airport X-ray machines, from weapons and their components to liquid
explosives.
Using optical-recognition technology explored for Cold War weapons
systems, Optosecurity Inc. has built a device that attaches to X-ray
machines and identifies guns, knives and weapons components, to bolster
the work of human screeners. Tests in airports have been planned for
2007.
Now the Quebec-based company says it has added a new capability to
the device: the ability to sniff out liquid explosives. Using the same
X-rays that already probe baggage, Optosecurity’s system measures the
physical properties of liquids to determine what they are.
Other companies have machines that can detect liquid explosives. But
cost and logistical concerns — including fears that the scans would
unacceptably slow screening — have kept the gear out of U.S. airports.
For example, Rapiscan Systems, part of OSI Systems Inc., offers a
checkpoint X-ray machine that includes explosives detection. It uses a
radio-wave technique called quadruple resonance to analyze the chemical
composition of items in the machine. The Transportation Security
Administration has tested the machine but has not deployed it.
Optosecurity contends its method is faster and less expensive than
other systems because it uses only one energy source, standard X-rays,
and is alone in being able to combine that with the optical recognition
of weapons.
The Optosecurity system requires carry-on liquids to be sent through
an X-ray machine in their own tray. That fits with recent TSA rules
requiring travelers to limit their liquids to three-ounce containers
that can fit in a quart-sized plastic bag. Liquids have been under
increasing scrutiny since authorities announced in August that they had
broken up a terrorist plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights with
liquid explosives.
If a flier flouted the rule and stashed a bottle of liquid in a
carry-on bag, the Optosecurity system would likely spot it and alert
screeners — but it probably could not simultaneously analyze the
substance properly, because of interference from the other things in
the luggage, CEO Eric Bergeron said.
Optosecurity — whose chairman is John Manley, a former deputy prime
minister and top homeland security official in Canada — would not
specify how accurate its device is. Bergeron hopes to begin selling
both the explosive-detection the optical-recognition functions in 2007.
Brian Ruttenbur, homeland security analyst for Morgan Keegan &
Co., said that if the Optosecurity device were extremely accurate, it
could be a breakthrough because “standard X-rays have not been proven
to discover liquid explosives or anything like that.”
On the other hand, “If it’s only 50 or 75 percent accurate, while
it’s great, what about that 25 percent?” Ruttenbur said. “What are you
going to do with false alarm after false alarm?”
And no matter how well it works, it could still face a challenge in
attracting a purchase from the TSA, Ruttenbur said. He believes TSA’s
motivation is low because Congress has not specifically mandated new
systems for liquid explosives and because there has not been a
successful attack using that method.
“There’s 20 different solutions out there for liquid explosives,”
Ruttenbur said. “My opinion is the TSA is going to trial everything in
the entire world and deploy nothing.”
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