By Calvin Biesecker
With new and tougher explosives detection standards forthcoming in the United States and eventually in Europe, Reveal Imaging Technologies is currently well positioned to meet these given that it has already met stringent standards for explosives detection in Israel combined with its strong market position in North America, a SAIC [SAI] executive told sister publication TR2.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), working with the national labs, is currently developing new explosive detection standards for explosive detection systems (EDS) that involve homemade explosives and smaller threat masses. The agency is also working with Europe on the new detection standards. Eventually, EDS manufacturers will have to meet these new standards.
“I feel Reveal is extremely well placed for that given their experience with Israel,” says Alex Preston, head of SAIC’s Security and Transportation Technology business unit. “So I think they have a very strong market position today and I think the market is poised for growth.”
Preston also says that Reveal has made inroads into the Chinese market, which also bodes well for growth. Reveal, Safran Group’s Morpho Detection business unit and L-3 Communications [LLL] each have EDS machines certified by TSA to screen checked bags for explosives. Additional companies like SureScan and OSI Systems [OSIS] are also attempting to be certified by the agency for their new EDS systems.
SAIC acquired Reveal last month. The purchase gave SAIC an immediate entry into the aviation security market, in particular for Reduced-Size EDS, which Reveal supplies to the TSA and international airports. The reduced-size are smaller machines that can more easily fit into small and medium-size airports, although they also scan fewer bags per hour than the medium-size machines made by Morpho and L-3.
Reveal’s main EDS product is the CT-80.
Preston says that Reveal also offers SAIC technology synergies that it can use to enhance its existing products and possibly offer additional products. This stems from the fact that EDS machines feature automated explosives detection capabilities, something SAIC doesn’t have.
One “potential fertile” area where Preston believes Reveal and SAIC could develop technology is for the screening of palletized air cargo, specifically cargo carried in Unit Load Devices (ULD), which is essentially a container made specifically to haul goods in the belly of an aircraft. There are currently no X-Ray type systems that can adequately scan ULDs although airlines and freight forwarders believe such a system would greatly improve their ability to meet air cargo screening mandates.
“They obviously have a tremendous capability in automated explosives detection,” Preston said of Reveal. “We don’t have that today. We don’t have the algorithmic piece of that. We have a lot of capability in drive through sensors but not auto detection.”
Reveal currently has two versions of its CT-80 EDS approved by TSA for screening air cargo at the piece level.
SAIC is best known in the detection space for its VACIS gamma-ray cargo and container inspection systems and its radiation portal monitor technology. These systems currently require manual interpretation of sensor outputs to locate potential threats or contraband inside containers.
Preston also sees potential with Reveal’s auto-detection capabilities coupled with another product that SAIC recently acquired, the CarScan passenger vehicle scanning system. CarScan is a low cost, low dose, dual-energy system that also discriminates between organic and inorganic materials and allows the occupants to remain in the vehicle during a scan, thereby increasing throughput.
SAIC acquired CarScan earlier this year as part of its deal for Spectrum San Diego. The scanning system had already gone through some pilot testing with various government agencies, including TSA.
Since the acquisition, SAIC has further developed CarScan, making it more robust and rugged so that it can handle a complete “duty cycle” across a wider temperature range than it previously could operate in, Preston said. SAIC has also integrated license plate reader (LPR) technology with CarScan, he said.
The LPR integration would enable users to store an image of the inside of a vehicle based on its license plate and compare it to another image of the vehicle taken at another time, such when it leaves a country and when it returns.
“It’s interesting that with that technology, because you can identify an image based on a license plate, it’s obviously able to do that comparison of what was in the vehicle when it left and what was in the vehicle when it came back,” Preston said. “There’s an interest in software integration play there. The first thing that any Customs official asks you is, ‘Are you bringing anything into the country?’ Obviously if you have an index of what the vehicle was like when you left the country you can see it again [when it returns].”
Preston says there is a lot of interest in the Middle East and in Mexico for the CarScan product.