Sago succesfully tests iPat airport screening system
Thermal system screens passengers for weapons and explosives; unlike Z Backscatter, no privacy issues are implicated; handheld version also available; Sago just one of many companies succesfully nurtered by Trex Enterprises
The iPat security screening system from San Diego, California-based Sago Systems, a divison of Trex Enterprises, has passed an initial round of testing. As the name suggests, the iPat is used to detect inobtrusively explosives and weapons on a person’s body, particularly in airport settings. A rival system, the Z Backscatter approach used by American Science & Engineering, presents privacy problems because it allows screeners an anatomically accurate image of the screened person’s body, but the Sago does not raise such privacy concerns. In addition, the system does not rely on radiation to create an image. Instead, it relies on thermal imaging which uses a part of the light spectrum that make clothes invisible but does not elicit personal detail about the passenger’s anatomy. The company also manufactures the aPat, a handheld model using the same technology.
Sago is one of five start-up companies Trex Enterprises has nourished in recent years, all of which hold strong intellectual property portfolios. These include: Loea (wireless comunication); Ophthonix (vision correction); e-Phocus (image sensors); and Silicon Kinetics (biotech tools).
-read more in this Security Park report
