Holding to the vision of “screening at speed” for the future airport security checkpoint experience, the Transportation Security Administration this month issued a new roadmap aimed at getting to the next-generation of solutions for technologies that improve scanning of people for concealed threats without them having to pause.
TSA says that over the next few years it plans to take a phased approach to developing on-person screening (OPS) to simultaneously tackle four goals, which include screening passengers and aviation workers at the same speed as they travel through the terminal, increased threat detection—to include dynamic risk-based screening—standardizing the display image format for operators, and connecting all transportation security equipment on a single network.
TSA’s current OPS technologies consist of walk-through metal detectors and Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) systems. The AIT systems, which are supplied by Leidos [LDOS], use millimeter wave technology to detect and generally locate potential threats hidden beneath a person’s clothing, alerting the screening officer where to conduct a secondary search that is typically done manually.
The purpose of the On-Person Screening Capability Development Roadmap is to “Establish the next generation of OPS solutions with a focus on moving passengers through the checkpoint in a continuous manner, enhancing threat detection capabilities with reduced false alarm rates, installing display image standardization, and enabling operational connectivity through secure data transmission,” the agency says in the 14-page roadmap. “With these requirements, TSA OPS will advance the checkpoint towards a future state of screening at speed, improving threat detection, and ensuring compatibility across screening checkpoints.”
Over four phases, TSA plans to initially make incremental improvements to its existing AIT systems along the lines of improving threat detection and efficiencies. In the second phase, the agency plans to conduct pilot evaluations to generate requirements for new technology that “improve detection, throughput, and connectivity.” Phase 3 will be aimed at introducing more automation and remote access and the final phase will explore “emerging and innovative technologies” that are beyond the solutions found in the first three phases.
The Phase 4 goal includes screening passengers at speed and eliminating all procedures requiring them to divest items they typically put into a bin to be screened, the document says.
Carry-on to On-Person
One industry official highlighted for HSR that the roadmap includes several “desired capabilities” that are being pursued for carry-on baggage screening and are “crossing over” to be applied to on-person screening, namely remote screening, dynamic switching and a common graphical user interface.
“These are good goals and should be achievable by industry,” the official said.
A key enabler of “risk-based security dynamic algorithm switching to screen passengers at their appropriate level of risk” is identity management (IDM), the roadmap says. Knowing a traveler’s vetting status will allow the agency to automatically dial up or down the screening, it says.
“For example, upon the IDM system determining that a passenger is TSA PreCheck approved, the algorithm would automatically switch to the PreCheck,” the roadmap says.
TSA is strengthening its IDM capabilities with the rollout of credential authentication technology at airport security checkpoints and evaluating the use of facial recognition biometrics at checkpoints to enhance identity verification.
The roadmap also includes stand-off detection, which is a new concept for checkpoint applications, although “some of these technologies are already being used at airport employee screening locations,” the official said.
In the roadmap, TSA says that standoff detection refers to “screening a person standing at a distance from a machine rather than standing inside of a machine” and that it plans to pilot test this capability with aviation workers. The agency will also evaluate technologies that allow for real-time alerts when potential threats are detected on a person.
Integrating IDM capabilities with standoff detection prior to a person’s arrival at the checkpoint will also help achieve the screening at speed vision, TSA says.