The Greeter
Idaho National Lab
August / September 2006
Volume 4 Number 4
As people enter a court house in White County, Ga., there is a sense of security as they pass through a device that's used to detect hidden weapons. This new technology, developed at Idaho National Laboratory, allows even the smallest weapons to be detected. INL technologies aren't limited to court houses. They are far reaching and capture global security, energy security, homeland security, national defense and other special programs and support the development of commercialization efforts with numerous companies. Following are several:
View Systems, Inc.
A leading homeland defense solution provider, View Systems, Baltimore, is one company that has seen just how far reaching a new technology can go. In 2003, INL licensed two technologies to View Systems with the expectation that the homeland security tools developed at the lab could be used to improve national security efforts.
To address threats of terrorists, both foreign and domestic, INL, through the support of the National Institute of Justice, developed a portal-style concealed weapons detection system that uses passive magnetic sensors. The system provides a non-intrusive method for rapid detection, location and archiving of data—€”including visual data—€”of potential suspects and weapon threats. Now being marketed by View Systems as SecureScan, the system senses disturbances in the ambient earth's magnetic field such as those caused by a weapon passing through the aperture of the portal. The system provides a graphical interface to the operator by using freeze-frame video capture technology, and places icons over the video indicating where suspected weapons may reside on a person. The weapons detector is sophisticated enough to discriminate between threat and non-threat items such as keys and coins. And it is sensitive enough to identify threat items as small as a box cutter or razor blade.
So far there have been 11 installations in Georgia with calls coming in daily from organizations that are interested in the technology. Other states including South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi may also be receiving the SecureScan technology.
As View Systems continued to work on getting SecureScan commercialized and installed, it also worked on manufacturing and commercializing a second INL technology. The Hazmat Cam took several years to develop but by 2003 View Systems was eager to see where this technology would go. Two years before the terrorist attacks of 9/11, INL engineer Kevin Young was busy exploring the initial ideas for a lightweight, wireless video system that would help National Guard civil support teams respond to terrorist incidents involving chemical, biological or radiological hazards.
Ironically, Young was at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama demonstrating the first Hazmat Cam prototype to a group of National Guard and Army emergency responders when the World Trade Center Towers were attacked.
"I'll never forget that day," said Young. "I had just started the Hazmat Cam demonstration when an Army specialist came running out of his office and told us a plane had flown into one of the towers." He continued with the demonstration, and just after finishing, the same specialist alerted the group that another plane had struck the second tower and a third plane had crashed into the Pentagon.
"As I watched media coverage of the search and rescue efforts play out on TV I kept thinking if the Hazmat Cam was further along in its development it would be a useful tool for the emergency workers," he said.
The Hazmat Cam is an affordable, lightweight, wireless video camera system for emergency first response teams. It increases responder safety and reduces response time during chemical, biological or other Hazmat response by allowing the incident commander and other experts outside the exclusion zone to see in real time what the entry team sees while making a first entry.
Now an R&D 100 winner, the Hazmat Cam, being marketed by View Systems as the Visual First Responder (VFR), is used by more than a dozen National Guard civil support teams, law enforcement agencies and fire departments across the country. The technology is being used to increase safety and shorten response time during incidents involving chemical, biological or radiological hazards, as well as for search and rescue purposes. The system is also being used to support Operation Iraqi Freedom.
proSWAT, Inc.
View Systems isn't the only INL partnership that has seen success. ProSWAT, Inc., based in Boise, Idaho, has also commercialized technologies developed at the lab. The Idaho Breaching Shotgun, now being marketed by ProSWAT as The Greeter, was developed at the lab as a result of a request of a federal law enforcement agency to help solve a problem facing its agents. Sometimes, seconds can mean the difference between life and death, between mission success and failure. When facing unknown dangers lurking beyond a locked door, police offices or military personnel may need to get in fast without relinquishing control of the situation or their weapons.
The agency wanted INL engineers to design a better firearm for use in executing forced entries through doors. The new weapon improves the entry time in life-threatening situation and lowers the risk of injury or death. It combines a shotgun for destroying door hinges or locks during a rapid forced entry with an automatic rifle for returning gunfire.
"We feel that the weapon will ultimately help save lives by allowing law enforcement officers a better option when they have to enter a structure during a crisis situation," said proSWAT, Inc. founder Sven Evers.
But ProSWAT hasn't limited their market to just firearms. The company has also licensed an INL technology that is a small, self-contained timing unit capable of initiating an explosion after a preset ranging from seconds to an hour.
Funded by the Technical Support Working Group, a national forum that identifies, prioritizes and coordinates interagency and international research and development requirements for combating terrorism, the Tactical Timed Firing Device (TTFD) design provides a disposable timer to be directly connected to a small amount of explosive agent and set to automatically detonate without anyone needing to be physically present to push a button. The technology was commissioned by the Department of Defense to provide military and law enforcement officers with a low-cost, safe option when they are challenged to remove or destroy improvised explosive devices.
Michelle Blacker is a communications specialist at Idaho National Laboratory.
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