Airport Security Becomes Less
Intrusive
Growing numbers of air passengers are
complaining about the intrusive nature of
airport security. The process has become like a
military drill. We stand in lengthy queues in
our stockinged feet, awaiting brusque
inspection.
The U.S. Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) is still testing a new type
of x-ray machine that sends those infamous
"naked pictures" to screeners in a back room.
The controversy over those immodest intrusions
led to some re-working of the technology and
diffusion of the imagery, but to most travelers
it's still just a source of potential
embarrassment.
However, upon scanning the scanning horizon,
we espied a more acceptable way to accurately,
yet not insensitively, scan travelers for
contraband without touching them or x- raying
them or depicting them naked.
The People Portal II (PPII) is an invention
of Tex Yukl, a technologist of Seattle-based
EMIT Technologies LLC. The PPII's full portal
scan displays a non-descript wireframe body
image which wouldn't offend even the most modest
traveler (see images at
tinyurl.com/37eqq6),
yet it doesn't inhibit detection by security
personnel of weapons, drugs or other concealed
contraband.
The device does this in seconds. Its unique
attributes have brought inquiries from U.S.
government agencies, including the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA)
and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), as
well as foreign governments.
Due to PPII's potential usage in military and
non-airline security applications, the unique
technology has also attracted funding from the
Department of Defense-sponsored Center for
Commercialization of Advanced Technology (CCAT).
With programs located at California State
University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) and San Diego
State University (SDSU), the CCAT program
actively seeks out innovative technologies
created by small entrepreneurs, academic
researchers and government labs, and then guides
those inventors through tech transfer processes
that can result in their products being utilized
by homeland security.
CCAT initially funded the PPII prototype in
2004. However, the technology has its roots in
the late 1980s, when Yukl put together a
handheld scanning device that used low energy
microwaves designed primarily to seek out drugs
in discrete hiding places, including containers
and "mules".
People acting as mules swallow balloons or
packets of illegal drugs as a means of
concealing them from routine inspections,
especially at border crossings. Yukl's handheld
system was used to uncover a 1991 drug smuggling
operation in Miami. The find was later
prosecuted as the Pony Malta case.
The handheld scanner came to the attention of
the
FAA by routine "bird dogging". "Many large
organizations, private and government, have
'bird dogs' that are always seeking out novel
ways to resolve complex problems. They find them
through patent searches and their networking
relationships," says Curt Lew, president of EMIT
Technologies.
Yukl helped to form EMIT in 1989,
specifically to work on the technology's
security applications as requested, and
partially funded, by the FAA. Yukl transformed
the technology inherent in the handheld device
into a full body scanning system in 2000 and
called it the People Portal.
The People Portal was evaluated by the FAA
test center in Atlantic City and was sent to the
Lewiston, Idaho airport for human throughput
evaluation.
The FAA's rigorous criteria for use in
airport screening centers had included the need
to be able to quickly check many people (at
least 10 people per minute) with a minimum of
false positives, and without compromising
modesty.
The company used the FAA's comments and
specifications to re-engineer into the People
Portal II, the prototype of which debuted in
2004 and positioned the company to win the Frost
and Sullivan "Entrepreneurial Company of the
Year" Award that same year.
The non-intrusive PPII energy format has been
shown to be radiologically safe for humans. Its
low energy microwaves, emitted by the system
during operation, are less than that of overhead
fluorescent lights.
Unlike other scanning technologies (i.e.,
x-ray and metal detectors), PPII shows operators
only the location of objects that are neither
living nor part of clothing. The unique
dielectric process allows it to measure the
movement of electromagnetic energy through
materials.
This generates data to accurately detect and
locate targets of interest and eventually to
categorize the composition of the constituent
material. PPII is an anomaly detector and relies
upon conformal physiology, instead of shape. The
portal has a proven capability of processing 900
to 1200 persons per hour and can detect an
anomaly as small as five inches long.
However, the People Portal II doesn't attempt
to identify what those objects are. For example,
the PPII can easily find a smooth non-metallic
item strapped around the body of an individual
trying to board a plane. It can't tell a
security guard whether the item is plastic
explosives, a medical device or vinyl money
belt, but it can show exactly where to
physically look in order to determine its
nature.
The People Portal II by design allows airport
security to body-search for all detected objects
quickly and without interpretive operators.
Another people-friendly advantage of the PPII
is that it can scan shoes, hats and gloves for
potential threats while they are being worn.
During the scanner's development and because
it showed most promise, in 2006 the CCAT program
stepped in with additional funding. "The CCAT
funds certainly contributed to many of the
processes from a financial and product
development perspective," said Lew. "This
advanced the commercializing steps and now we're
almost ready to launch the People Portal II into
the market. CCAT has also been active in
networking and seeking new prospects for us
within the government and elsewhere."
PPII will be ready for proof-testing by the
FAA in their Atlantic City labs by the beginning
of 2008. If this testing is successful, PPII
could be appearing for trial runs by the TSA in
airports and in other secure facilities, such as
corrections facilities, government buildings and
high tech centers later that year.
The system can also be used to detect
contraband entering a building and potentially
stolen items leaving a building. Via joint
venture partnerships with door manufacturers,
PPII is expected to ultimately evolve into a
portal in its own right, as a very "modest",
unobtrusive and otherwise unremarkable
pass-through doorway with its own built-in
security screening.
In the often problematic world of airport
security screening, it's a step in the right
direction.
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