Smiths Detection has introduced a new capability for checkpoint security called iLane, which involves diverting suspicious carry-on bags away from a passenger for secondary screening based on a primary examination of the parcels by a security officer at an X-Ray machine. Smiths says that iLane would increase efficiency at airport security checkpoints because for one it has an automatic bin return system, thereby reducing the need for someone to move bins from the back of checkpoint to the front, and secondly because a suspicious bag is diverted after leaving the X-Ray machine instead of being run through multiple times. How the secondary inspection would be done is based on a particular customer but could include a manual inspection or the use of technology. For iLane, once a suspicious bag is noted, it would exit the X-Ray machine and be diverted away from the passenger onto a separate belt system that parallels the rollers that passengers typically retrieve their carry-on items from. Passengers would still be able to see their bags but wouldn’t be able to reach them. Smiths already has a prototype operating at an airport in the United Kingdom and has already received orders from U.K. customers, Mark Laustra, vice president and general manager of Smiths Detection’s Homeland Security business, tells TR2. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is interesting in iLane, he adds.
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