Infrared sensors could help police detect suicide vests

Sophisticated infrared sensors originally designed for the U.S. military could soon be used by local police departments to detect suicide bombers.

Thermal Matrix USA initially designed its Access Counter IED Technology system to assist military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan identify potential suicide bombers, but hopes to create a model that local law enforcement agencies can deploy.

Using a series of complicated sensors including millimeter wave, long-waves, infrared, and ultraviolet light, the suite of sensors offered the military a comprehensive view of what an individual could be hiding beneath their clothes.

After it was initially developed in 2005, DHS officials tested the devices for domestic use but determined that they were too costly, took too long to set up, and were not portable.

Bill Reinpoldt, the company’s director of technology, said, “It took a few guys and truck or two to move the system around. It was big and unwieldy.”

But now the company has modified its product to significantly reduce its size, weight, and deployment time to be more practical for local law enforcement officials.

While the comprehensive range of sensors offered a detailed picture of what an individual could be concealing, researchers realized that the device’s infrared scanners were performing the majority of the detection capabilities. Therefore to reduce size and complexity, the company abandoned the other sensors opting to focus solely on the infrared scanner.

Unlike other body scanning technologies, infrared does not project any radiation and limits privacy concerns as it does not generate images of an individual’s sensitive areas.

Instead the infrared scanners display a detailed “shadow” over an individual when it detects a concealed object. The devices are capable of detecting any hidden objects including knives, guns, plastics, and even liquids.

“You can not only see a gun, but which way the gun is pointed, the trigger, the trigger guards, the hammer, and whether it is cocked or not,” Reinpoldt said.

In addition the device casts a wide-spectrum and can scan as many as five people walking side by side.

According to Reinpoldt, the modified infrared scanners are also portable and easy to set up.

The devices can fit in a backpack and can be set up in “seven minutes instead of hours.”

Because of the devices are military-grade and its specifications are classified, Reinpoldt could not specify its range, but did say that it could scan individuals as far as 100 yards away.

Thermal Matrix currently sells the devices to the U.S. Army and several federal agencies, but is working to market them to local police departments, but cost remains an issue.

The devices are less expensive than airport body scanners, which cost about $130,000, making them prohibitively expensive for local police departments that have been hit hard by budget cuts.

Reinpoldt said the Thermal Matrix is developing ways to reduce the product’s costs.