After failed efforts nearly a decade ago to develop technology that could quickly and effectively scan a person’s shoes at an airport security checkpoint, the Department of Homeland Security is again examining shoe scanning technology and is planning to begin prototype testing later this year.
The department’s Science and Technology Directorate, working with the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), has spent the last two years developing the millimeter wave-based system and expects to test it with the Transportation Security Administration this year at S&T’s Transportation Security Laboratory (TSL) in Atlantic City to see if it can meet threat detection standards, John Fortune, program manager for S&T’s Screening at Speed Program, tells HSR.
The testing at the TSL this fall with volunteers will examine performance and effectiveness in detecting threats in people’s footwear in order to be certified, Fortune said. Fortune said he has also talked with the Transportation Security Administration’s Innovation Task Force (ITF) team about possibly deploying the shoe scanner within the next year for a pilot evaluation at an airport, but noted that this isn’t “a done deal.”
The system first needs to demonstrate that it can perform in a controlled laboratory environment, Fortune said. It’s another matter to test the system in a real-world environment, he said.
If the technology is successful in the various testing environments, Fortune said the longer-term goal is to license it out to commercial partners.
Within the Screening at Speed Program, Fortune said that the prototypes S&T develops are built with costs and operations in mind. The current version of the shoe scanner is a low-profile “fieldable prototype” for operational testing that is at a “reasonable cost” and a “reasonable form factor” to increase the likelihood that a commercial vendor would be successful in further optimizing for commercial use, he said.
Millimeter wave technology is currently the driver behind the body scanning systems TSA uses at airport security checkpoints. The ProVision Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) systems are supplied by L3Harris Technologies [LHX].
Fortune said that for the shoe scanner developed by PNNL, some new science and tweaks have been incorporated into the millimeter wave system.
Operating Concepts
For basic operations now, an individual walks in and stands briefly on the shoe scanning platform, no longer than the time it takes for the AIT systems to scan a person, Fortune said. A major issue is trying to figure out where to put the shoe scanning system in a checkpoint so that it doesn’t impede traveler flow, he said.
Ideally, the shoe scanner would be integrated into the platform of the body imager so that an individual’s person and footwear are scanned at the same time, he said. But, he highlighted, the airport security checkpoint is evolving and in five to 10 years may look entirely different, so a shoe scanning system might need to be deployed elsewhere.
Notional deployment scenarios could include installing the shoe scanners at the multiple divestment stations that are part of automated screening lanes that TSA is evaluating, Fortune said. In this case, a person putting their belongings in a tray to be scanned by the carry-on baggage X-Ray system might also get a signal from the shoe scanner to remove their footwear to go through the X-Ray scanner, he said.
In another example, the shoe scanner could be installed in the travel document queue while their identity and traveler credential are being validated, he said.
Moving a shoe scanning system forward in the checkpoint would make it easier to make sure shoes are put through the X-Ray system for carry-on items if there is an alarm. This might depend on how often the system alarms, Fortune said.
The operating concept for using a shoe scanner at an airport in the U.S. would be up to TSA. Matt Gilkeson, who is part of TSA’s ITF team, said at the agency’s industry day in late June that TSA wants people and their belongings to keep moving forward in a checkpoint. For example, he said, a shoe scanner might be a good solution for alarm resolution of a PreCheck trusted traveler whose shoe is alarmed by a metal detector.
Rather than send the PreCheck passenger back and divest their shoes for further screening, the person could move forward without divesting their shoes by having the shoe scanner analyze them, Gilkeson said.
Shoe scanners and other technologies may allow TSA to rethink its current screening processes for different passenger populations, he said.
Different types of shoes and the materials they are constructed with present the biggest challenges to an effective shoe scanner, Fortune said. He said his team has worked with a human factors team within S&T that went to seven airports to observe the types of shoes people wear at different times and in environments. These results have been used to improve the development of the shoe scanner, he said.
Screening at Speed
As part of the Screening at Speed Program, Fortune said his team is also investing in new passenger screening technology, including a high-definition millimeter wave body scanner and related software algorithms that are being integrated. The body scanner features a wider frequency range and newly designed antennas that provide better images than generated by the current AIT system used by TSA.
The program is also looking at “in motion scanning at TSA relevant threat levels so we really are trying to get to that true at speed where someone can very briefly pause or continue to walk through a checkpoint,” Fortune said. There is a lot of complementary technology between the various systems under development that could be put together in new ways such as panels to enable screening at speed, he said.
There is a “huge push” from S&T and TSA to develop software and hardware based on open architecture so that third party developers can have their technology installed in a system, he said.
“The idea of a modular checkpoint where the hardware and the software that runs on that hardware can be put into play and adapted in real-time, I think that is the way of the future, so we really see this shoe scanner as just a piece of that whole larger puzzle to build a better checkpoint,” Fortune said.
The prototype body scanner is also headed for the TSL and will likely arrive in August, he said. S&T is also discussing a potential deployment of the prototype body scanner with the TSA ITF in the next 12 to 18 months, he said. The high-definition body scanner would improve threat detection while also reducing false alarms.
The body scanner and “futuristic” screening at speed models are being developed by PNNL as well, Fortune said.