• Looking at planes with bird's eye could cut collisions with aircraft

    Aircraft collisions with wildlife — primarily birds — is a serious and growing threat to civil and military aviation, as well as an expensive one: bird strikes cost civil aviation alone more than $1.2 billion a year world-wide

  • The complexities of the human face: analyzing facial recognition technologies in unconstrained environments

    Chris Archer, the online content editor at IDGA (the Institute for Defense & Government Advancement), talked with Thirimachos Bourlai, research assistant professor at West Virginia University, about facial recognition technologies; the human face has several advantages over other biometric traits: it is non-intrusive, understandable, and can be captured in a covert manner at variable standoff distances; Bourlai examines the various challenges of facial recognition as a biometric technology faces; defines “unconstrained recognition” and how this challenge is being met; he also explores how facial recognition will be used by the military and commercially in the short and long term future

  • Airport security screening technology market to grow

    In 2011, TSA distributed approximately $437.1 million in contract obligations toward airport screening technologies; this amount is likely to grow in coming years as airport security authorities look for technology which would allow them to balance the requirements of tight security, on the one hand, and demands from the public for faster and less intrusive screening measures

  • TSA looking for device to replace pat-downs

    DHS is soliciting ideas from technology companies for a hand-held scanner which may be used instead of pat-down searches on passengers who set off alarms as they go through a full-body scanner

  • Washington Homeland Security Roundtable launches Senior Executive Industry Forum

    The Washington Homeland Security Roundtable (WHSR) today announced the creation of the WHSR / TSA Senior Executive Industry Forum, in collaboration with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA); the kick off meeting of the Forum will take place on 5 June, with an address by TSA administrator John Pistole

  • Canadian airports deploy desktop explosives trace detection systems

    The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) acquired sixty-three desktop explosives trace detection (ETD) systems to be deployed to airports in Canada to support passenger and baggage screening efforts

  • Robust growth continues for aviation security industry

    Existing threats, rising passenger numbers, and airport expansion projects mean that the global aviation security market will reach $22.3 billion in 2012

  • Concerns raised about body-cavities explosives attack on aviation

    Security services raised the possibility that al Qaeda affiliates may decide to mark the anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Laden by sending suicide bombers with explosives inside their bodies to bring down airplanes; these experts point to an August 2009 attempt by a suicide body-bomber on a Saudi prince, and to the fact that U.S. drones earlier this year killed a Yemeni doctor who had devised medical procedures which could be used surgically to plant explosive devices in humans

  • Study challenges Russian investigation of Smolensk plane crash

    A new study by a team of experts of the 10 April 2010 plane crash near Smolensk, Russia, in which the Polish president, his wife, nine NATO generals and others were killed, raises pointed questions about the conclusions of the official Russian investigation into the incident, and points to contradictions and discrepancies in the report

  • Airport racial profiling app unveiled

    The New York-based Sikh Coalition, together with other civil rights organizations, is today unveiling a mobile application which allows users to report instances of racial profiling at airports in real time; users are prompted with some questions geared specifically toward Sikhs, but that the app also allows for accounts of discrimination from members of all communities who feel their rights have been violated

  • Intelligent surveillance to bolster Aussie national security

    Researchers are working on developing smart technology that combines 2D and 3D video images taken from a variety of challenging environments and makes it possible to identify a person without the need to stand face on to a camera

  • Rhinoceros beetles foretell future of flapping-wing design

    Researchers launch a quantitative investigation of aerodynamics and wing kinematics in rhinoceros beetle flight in order to shed new light on the evolution of flapping flight in nature; experimental study of the aerodynamic performance of beetles in forward/hovering flight will provide insight into designs for efficient and stable flapping-wing micro aerial vehicles

  • New report analyzes the airport security equipment sector

    A new report offers a detailed business analysis of the leading 125 companies in the airport security equipment sector

  • Bi-plane to revive supersonic travel

    Researchers say that the best way to revive supersonic air travel – which came to an end with the retirement of the Concorde in 2003 – would be by building a plane with two wings to a side; computer models show that a bi-plan produces significantly less drag than a conventional single-wing aircraft at supersonic cruise speeds

  • House considers bill to send lost airport money to USO

    Lawmakers are considering a bill that would send unclaimed money left at airport security checkpoints to the USO, a major armed forces support group