EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES: it’s not all about X-rays
Whilst not wishing to underestimate human factors, there is little doubt that technology proffers many of the solutions to the challenges faced by airports and airlines in their attempts to prevent the next terrorist outrage. Against this backdrop Philip Baum looks at a few of the solutions currently available which, whilst not widely deployed yet, may form part of the aviation security system of the future.
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assenger screening is often perceived as the primary security activity at an airport, so any review
of emerging technologies would be incomplete without reference to a few of the solutions available to screen people and their baggage.
Whilst the debate rages on about the deployment (or not) of advanced imaging technology, most
states are
only considering millimetre wave or backscatter X-ray as a solution, even though the detection capabilities and image quality of transmission X-ray products is far better. Sensationalist
media campaigns have been ‘successful’ in preventing the deployment of the most effective passenger screening technologies, thereby limiting our ability to prevent the next terrorist attack. Yet there are solutions which do not rely on ionising radiation. Animals have long been regarded as an effective means of sniffing out explosives or narcotics, but many argue that they tire easily and one can never really tell when they are actually working due to an absence of an on/off switch! Canine units are often called in by bomb squads in response to an incident and, in this journal, we have previously reviewed the even
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greater capabilities of the likes of pigs and African pouched rats. But converting animals into a technology is the real challenge. Aeroflot have managed to establish the linkage by capturing air samples using a product known as ‘The Bee’ and presenting it for analysis by their highly trained Sulimov jackal dogs. And, speaking of bees, Inscentinel in the UK has long been researching and testing a hand-held detector laden with individually trained bees who become excited when exposed to a certain scent. Yet, in this vein, one product which hit the headlines in the last year is the BioExplorer.
June 2013 Aviationsecurityinternational
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