By Calvin Biesecker
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Tuesday said it plans to discontinue use of a prototype technology being used to screen shoes for explosives at a Florida airport because upgrades to the machine still don’t meet minimum requirements for explosives detection.
TSA said in a statement posted on its web site Tuesday evening that an upgraded shoe scanning machine submitted in August for testing after TSA had developed a series of minimum specifications. The technology did show “significant improvements” over previous versions but “still does not meet standards to ensure detection of explosives.”
The shoe scanning technology is being developed by General Electric [GE] and is integrated into the company’s Secure Registered Traveler (SRT) kiosk that is being used at the front end of security lines for RT members at airports that have selected Verified Identity Pass‘ Clear brand. RT is public-private program formed by TSA, airports and industry that gives paying members access to their own line for expedited movement to the airport security checkpoints. Before RT applicants are approved to used one of several service provider services such as Clear, they are first vetted against terrorist watchlists by the TSA.
The SRT kiosk has been deployed at airports that have selected the Clear service as the RT provider of choice, but the machine has only been turned on at Orlando International Airport in Florida. TSA said it will turn off the machine there on Oct. 10 and will not authorize the use of the shoe scanners at any other airports.
The kiosks will still be allowed to use the biometric enabled smart cards that RT members use to verify that they are the authorized card holders but there will be no security benefit, TSA said.
It’s hard to say how much of a setback TSA’s announcement is to the RT program. TSA said it stands ready to continue working with GE on getting the shoe scanning technology up to standards. GE said yesterday that they will continue to work with TSA to fill any performance gaps that remain in the technology. And even though the SRT kiosks are only operational at one airport, Verified’s Clear brand has over 68,000 members at 10 airports.
Two other service providers, Unisys [UIS] with its rtGO brand, and Vigilant Solutions with its Preferred Traveler service, operate RT services at airports in Reno, Nev., and Jacksonville, Fla., respectively. The RT services are interoperable at all participating airports, allowing, for example, Clear members to use the RT lines in Reno and Jacksonville.
Verified Identity Pass spokeswoman Cindy Rosenthal said the company will stick with GE in hopes that at some point the shoe scanning technology will be able to offer Clear members the benefit of being able to leave their shoes on at security checkpoints if the technology doesn’t alarm to a potential threat. Verified continues to investigate other technologies that can offer additional security benefits such as passengers being allowed to keep laptops in their carrying cases, she said.
Despite TSA’s continued unwillingness to offer security benefits to RT members, RT service providers continue to prepare for additional airports joining the program. Moreover, the service providers are emphasizing more than just potential security benefits to generate members.
Verified’s Rosenthal said her company offers concierge-like services at the front end of its security lines to help Clear customers more quickly and easily unload their coats and other items into bins that go through X-Ray scanners. TSA is now permitting Verified to provide similar help at air side of checkpoints in Orlando and Indianapolis, Ind., to help Clear members quickly and effectively gather their belongings to help keep the security lines moving.
Meanwhile, FLO Corp., which has been approved by TSA as an RT services provider, is emphasizing the total package of services and benefits its RT members will get. FLO announced on Tuesday that it is acquiring the rtGO solution from Unisys, allowing FLO to have kiosks and technical solutions Unisys has developed for the RT program. Unisys will retain a role on the program as a service contractor.
FLO will continue to work on marketing its program, which may keep the rtGO name, and develop a distribution network for its brand. FLO will be emphasizing things like “predictable wait times” at security checkpoints and other travel and non-travel benefits such as off site baggage check in and concessions discounts, Luke Thomas, FLO executive vice president, told Defense Daily yesterday. He also said that FLO is bringing in a partner that will be able to offer its members better rates on home mortgages by stripping out some closing costs.
While GE struggles to get is SRT kiosk certified for use in the United States, the company for the first time is demonstrating the system overseas this week in Germany at the 2007 Inter Airport conference. GE believes that the SRT, combined with an identity kiosk it is developing, will offer airport security officials everywhere the potential to leverage advanced technologies to screen passengers.
The identity kiosk was announced by GE last week as an expanded vision for its airport security checkpoint of the future initiative, which focused on integrating new and existing technologies to improve the screening of passengers and their carry-on bags. GE said it is developing an identity kiosk it hopes will find a place at front end of current security lines.
The aviation identity kiosks would reduce the number of TSA greeters at the front of the security line who review passengers’ boarding passes and government issued photo identification documents to verify identities and validate permission to enter the air side of a terminal.
The kiosk being developed by GE’s Security business unit would include a digital camera that takes a snapshot of an individual and reader technology that verifies the authenticity of government issued identity document such as a driver’s license or a person’s passport. Facial recognition technology being developed by GE’s Global Research Center would be used to verify a match between the snapshot taken of a particular person and that individual’s photo on the identity card.
The addition of a document validation system is something missing from the current process at the checkpoint, Yotam Margalit, marketing manager for aviation products at GE Security, told Defense Daily last Friday.
The document reading technology is being supplied by MITAM. The Israel-based firm will be working to further develop their system to read documents more commonly used in the United States, Margalit said.
Nearly two years ago GE unveiled a working version of its future airport checkpoint of how passengers and their carry-on baggage could be better screened than is currently done (Defense Daily, Dec. 22, 2005). In addition to using new and advanced technologies such as millimeter wave imaging and Computed Tomography-based Explosives Detection Systems, GE also said its checkpoint would feature more automation and have networked sensors and systems that could be viewed remotely, increasing reliability and efficiency.
In addition to the identification capabilities that will be featured in the new kiosk, GE will incorporate threat detection just as it does on the SRT Kiosk it developed for the RT program. The new kiosk will have an Itemiser FX module that takes a trace sample from a person’s fingertip and analyzes it for the presence of explosives, Margalit said. The kiosk will also feature the company’s quadrapole resonance technology-based shoe scanning system that detects whether explosives may be present in a person’s footwear, the same technology that TSA said isn’t ready.
Another capability GE plans to add to its identity kiosk is a database search against terror lists and passenger flight plans, Margalit said. The company will work with TSA, the airlines and airports for this, he said.
A prototype of the new identity kiosk should be ready around March with production models ready by late June or early July, Margalit said. The company will be able to move quickly because it is using the same basic design as the SRT Kiosk, he said.
Partial funding for the project is coming from the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation established by the United States and Israel in 1977 to fund joint U.S. and Israeli teams in the development and commercialization of non-defense technology products.