A common technology used to help diagnose diseases in humans is now found to be effective in making airport checkpoints safer and airport operations more efficient.
A common technology used to help diagnose diseases in humans is now found to be effective in making airport checkpoints safer and airport operations more efficient.
Analogic, a Peabody, Massachusetts-based company, has come up with an advanced scanner that uses computed tomography (CT) technology. Speaking to a&s International, Mark Laustra, Vice President of Global Development and Government Relations at Analogic, explained why the solution is the next generation system for airport checkpoint security.
“It uses the latest in CT technology in conjunction with cutting edge threat detection software,” Laustra said. “The various innovations ConneCT employs will elevate the level of security for travelers, decrease the cost per passenger airports spend on screening while simultaneously increasing passenger throughput. The scanner offers 100X the amount of data available in current 2D X-ray and generates a 3D image that airport security screeners can manipulate, or toggle onscreen. This gives screeners a complete 360 degree view of a bag and affords them multiple points of view and the ability to ‘digitally unpack’ a bag to detect threats.”
The company expects three major factors to drive demand for the solution, Laustra added. The first and probably most important is the ever-changing threat environment. To date, airport security technology has been largely reactive to threats, but with CT scanning there is a tool that can put security personnel and airports in a more proactive role when detecting and assessing threats.
Secondly, Analogic seeks to elevate the travel experience with ConneCT. This will increase revenue for airports by getting more passengers through security lines and on to the shopping and dining venues that airports offer.
Lastly, ConneCT offers airports an opportunity to upgrade to the latest technology while keeping their costs low. ConneCT was built from the ground up with these three driving factors in mind. By its design ConneCT can increase efficiency at security checkpoints while offering a smaller footprint, lower cost of ownership over its life time, as well as a significantly lower cost per passenger.
The system is designed to give government regulators a much better tool to address terrorist threats. Much like the iPhone, ConneCT is designed to be an “open system” where any software provider can provide a solution in the form of an algorithm to detect threats – much like an iPhone app. This will give governments the ability to respond to threats much faster as the new capability can be uploaded instantaneously through a secure network.
“Additionally, multiple ConneCT’s can be networked together and be operated remotely by a single operator,” Laustra pointed out. “This will save labor costs and add to the short return on investment. Our plan is to continue advancing airport security and screening technology so that airports can more readily adapt to the changing threat environment and stay ahead of the curve when dealing with new and emerging threats.”
The company also wants to make the travel experience to become more enjoyable, by mitigating the stress and frustration that is inherent in current security checkpoint lines. It has plans of deploying ConneCT scanner at major airport hubs in the US as well as across Europe and Asia.
“We feel that wide scale deployment will heighten security, increase passenger throughput, and drive increased revenues for airports,” Laustra said.