The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to begin pilot tests at Los Angeles International Airport of a system developed by L-3 Communications [LLL] that uses trace detection technology to screen individuals’ shoes for traces of explosives as they walk through a turnstile type of gate at aviation checkpoints.
TSA will test two of L-3’s PassPort explosive trace detection systems during the two to three month data collection effort, positioning the shoe scanners in front of walk through metal detectors for passengers to pass through. Passengers will still have to remove their shoes for screening by X-Ray machines as they pass through the checkpoint.
L-3 introduced PassPort nearly two years ago as part of its proposed integrated checkpoint solution (TR2, Oct. 18, 2006). As a people walk through the gate, which stands about waist high, air is pushed across the base of the unit to disturb particles on their shoes for trace analysis. A vacuum is used to draw in the dislodged trace particles to collect the particles into stainless steel pipes.
The particles are deposited onto a detection surface. L-3 uses its energetic materials detection technology, which was developed by its Cyterra business unit as an alternative to ion mobility spectroscopy, to analyze whether the materials come from explosives. Its then up to algorithms developed by L-3 to determine make sure “we’re discriminating between explosive materials and other things that might be considered energetic property but aren’t necessarily explosive,” John Oelschlaeger, senior vice president and general manager for L-3 Cyterra, tells TR2. The system then provides a go, no go response, he says.
TSA has previously tested shoe scanning technology developed by General Electric [GE], whose system is based on quadrapole resonance technology to detect metal inside of shoes, but discontinued that effort saying the system did not meet its minimum requirements for explosives detection (TR2, Oct. 17, 2007). TSA Administrator Kip Hawley told a House aviation subcommittee last month that GE and the Department of Homeland Security continue to go through an iterative process with the company’s shoe scanner that involves upgrades and further tests.
Some, if not all of those additional tests, have taken place in the DHS Science and Technology Directorate’s laboratory facility in Atlantic City, N.J.
Once TSA decided that GE’s technology wasn’t ready to meet its requirements at aviation checkpoints, the agency issued a Request for Information seeking vendors with shoe scanning technologies. L-3 responded with Passport, which had been under development, and TSA decided to evaluate the system in the DHS Transportation Security Laboratory.
L-3 shipped a unit to the lab in April and testing for a couple of months in May. Based on those tests TSA decided to move ahead with the operational field tests.
In addition, PassPort features a paddle that brushes against a person’s torso as he or she moves through the portal, taking a trace sample from their clothing for analysis. Right above the paddle is a bar that a person pushes aside with his or her hands, again offering another trace sample for analysis.
“Passport’s direct contact design takes samples from hands, torso and feet–without the need for users to remove their shoes–enabling continuous traffic flow with no stopping or waiting,” L-3 says on its Website.
A TSA spokeswoman tells TR2 the agency will be testing all three trace detection components of PassPort.
L-3 says the machine, which is based on its energetic material detection technology, can detect the presence of any explosive if it releases heat while decomposing. Examples of the types of explosives PassPort can detect include PETN or pentrite, TATP or Triacetone Triperoxide, RDX, nitrates and others, according to L-3. PassPort provides analytic results within seconds of a person exiting the system, allowing the next person to be screened, L-3 says.
The detection element for all three collection areas, hands, torso and shoes is the same, with all the stainless steel tubing leading to a centralized detector.
One thing L-3, and likely TSA, hopes to learn from the field tests is how well PassPort holds up from a maintenance perspective. So far in its own laboratory testing L-3 hasn’t been able to pinpoint the limits of the detector surface life, Oelschlaeger says.
“Our goal is to try and get the internal mechanism that I’m describing, that it doesn’t get replaced but every so often, maybe every month, or two or three,” Oelschlaeger says. “When you get it into a checkpoint with a continuous flow of passengers 16 hours a day, we haven’t built up enough test data to know how long it will go before it needs to be replaced.”
PassPort doesn’t require any type of routine maintenance after each traveler goes through the system, he says.
TSA wants a shoe scanning technology with a throughput of at least 240 passengers per hour and PassPort is “better than that,” Oelschlaeger says. It typically takes the system seven to eight seconds per passenger, he adds.
Right now L-3 is solely focused on working with TSA in terms of what it is doing with PassPort, he says.
L-3 is loaning the units to TSA for the tests. DHS S&T will also participate in the tests.