Schneier on Security

Davi Ottenheimer • July 7, 2005 1:27 PM

Thanks for the tip. The New York Times has a good write-up, republished in “Newszine”:

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/Newszine/technology/5.html

A quick search found an article from 1997 extolling the virtues and relevance to airport screening:

http://www.spie.org/app/Publications/magazines/oerarchive/march/mar97/passivemm.html

“Applications that make use of penetration of solids include concealed weapon detection for airport security-Smith says that tests in this area have detected plastic as well as metal weapons through clothing and even through 0.5 in. of sheetrock.”

It looks like the US Justice Department has been financially backing the development of the technology to get enhanced sensors.

The NYT article says US$7million was invested over eight years, but another article claims Lockheed Martin used a $200 million grant from the National Institute of Justice:

http://govtsecurity.com/mag/looking_trouble/

This article also explains that a millimeter wave sensor detects “blackbody radiation signatures” that are already present (as opposed to actively reflecting radiation off a subject). These are then processed and compared to a database of known weapons.

In effect, this means any surveillance camera can be significantly more useful as it can provide visual alerts directly related to radiation signatures.

Amazingingly, even though Brijot will be selling each unit for $60K/unit they already claim $100 million in orders from around the world.

The questions that come to mind are what is the accuracy of the signature algorithm, how complete is the database of signatures, and how will they be secured/maintained?