Aussie company, GE to market quadruple resonance shoe-scanning device

Perth, Australia-based QR Science and GE are marketing a scanning technology which uses radio waves to penetrate objects and excite a response from the atoms in substances such as plastic explosives. It is more sensitive and versatile than traditional detection techniques. “It’s low-frequency radio waves, AM radio basically, so it’s very safe,” said QR Sciences vice president of commercial applications Gary Pennefather. “You come up and you stand on a little platform … for a couple of seconds and then you keep walking through. And while you’re standing on it, it’s putting radio waves through the soles of your shoes and listening for the response.” The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is assessing the machine as a way of cutting queues at 2,000 U.S. airport checkpoints. The first ones could be installed by the end of the year.

Initial plans are to use the ShoeScanner device for the Registered Traveler program about to get under way this month. Under that program, travelers who pass a background check and pay an annual fee will be able to get through security faster. Pennefather said, however, that the TSA had indicated it was interested in a wider rollout of the device and it could also be introduced in Australia. “ShoeScanner, although it improves security, also provides a business return because people get through the airport a lot faster,” he said. “They end up in the transit lounge shopping for a bit longer, they’re less irritated — all those good things.” The Australian Customs Services is already testing QR Sciences technology to help it better detect weapons in the postal system.

QR Sciences will supply the technology to GE, and GE will build the scanning device. QR Sciences, which receives a royalty every time the technology is used, stands to reap millions from its use. In 2004 GE acquired Newark, California-based InVision for about $900 million to augment GE’s own explosive detection offerings.