Brijot Imaging Systems has developed and delivered people and parcel screening system to the U.S. Army for deployment in the Middle East that is integrated into a standard 20-foot shipping container, making it relatively easy to use and deploy.
Called ScanPort, the screening system was developed over the past year based on requirements from the Army Forces Central Command (ARCENT) aimed at improving the screening of individuals and their belongings as well as reducing risk to U.S. personnel by permitting remote operations.
Inside ScanPort is two of Brijot’s GEN 2 passive millimeter-wave imaging systems to allow a remote user to simultaneously screen an individual’s front and back sides as the person moves through the container. In addition, for the versions currently being sold to ARCENT, Brijot integrated an OSI Systems [OSIS] Rapiscan 622XR X-Ray system for parcel screening.
In addition to the screening features, if the remote operator suspects that an individual may represent a threat or could be carrying a bomb, ScanPort can be locked down with the person inside. That lock down, mantrap capability is one of ARCENT’s requirements. The container also features air conditioning and lighting.
Ever since a suicide bomber killed over 20 people and injured scores more at a U.S. military foreign operating base in Iraq in late 2004, the military has been looking for ways to improve the screening of Iraqi nationals who work at its facilities and to push that screening out the security gates. With ScanPort, not only can the screening be done at a gate, it can also be done remotely, which means security guards can perform their jobs out of harm’s way.
Brijot has a video demonstration of how ScanPort works. When an individual approaches a checkpoint or access control point to gain entry into a facility, a guard remotely opens the entrance end of the container permitting the person inside. Once the person is in, the entrance is electronically closed and locked. The person then puts any parcels onto the conveyor belt for the X-Ray system, and then proceeds to walk down a corridor where the GEN 2 systems can scan the individual. At the end of the corridor the person picks up any parcels that have been remotely scanned and then waits for the operator to unlock the exit side of the container. Once the individual leaves ScanPort, programmable logic control features allow the front end to be reopened if someone else is ready to enter.
Beyond the container and the security equipment inside, ScanPort also includes communications and computer technology and hardware that are installed in a local security operations center for remote operation of the system. That equipment includes video displays for the GEN 2 and security cameras and the X-Ray system.
The development of ScanPort demonstrates that Brijot understands how to meet customers’ needs for more than just the GEN 2 millimeter wave personnel imaging system that it supplies. ScanPort is vendor neutral and can operate with other companies’ X-Ray systems and other technology such as explosive trace detection systems and biometrics for access control, Troy Techau, Brijot’s vice president of business development, tells TR2.
Integrating various screening technologies into ready to operate systems inside a moveable standard container is a much improved way to go to market than having the security guys at the gate be the integrators,” Techau says.
ScanPort has a throughput of up to 300 people per hour if the X-Ray system isn’t being used and up to 180 people per hour with the parcel screening feature. The system, including the equipment that would be installed in a security operations center, sells for $450,000.
Brijot declined to say how many ScanPorts are being acquired by ARCENT. Techau says that as the systems get used Brijot will incorporate the lessons learned. The company also sees applications for ScanPort with critical infrastructure protection such as petrochemical and nuclear facilities and even sporting events.
Brijot is responsible for the system design and integration. The company contracted out the manufacturing of ScanPort.