Multispectral concealed weapon detection in visible, infrared, and terahertz (original) (raw)

Investigation of concealed objects detection in visible, infrared and terahertz ranges of radiation

Photonics Letters of Poland, 2013

Assuring the safety of crowded public places like e.g. airports is one of the most serious social issues. One of the aspects of the problem is the detection of potentially dangerous objects hidden under a person's clothing. There are various solutions from simple metal detectors to X-ray scanners. Some of the available solutions are harmful to humans. There is a great potential in using multispectral surveillance imagers in security systems thus we investigate the possibilities of concealed object detection by screening people with non-invasive cameras working in various spectral ranges.

Segmentation of Concealed Objects Detected by Terahertz Imaging

2010

The detection of weapons concealed underneath a person’s clothing is an important obstacle to the improvement of the security of the general public as well as the safety of public assets like airports and buildings. Manual screening procedures for detecting concealed weapons such as handguns, knives, and explosives are common in controlled access settings like airports, entrances to sensitive buildings, and public events. It is desirable sometimes to be able to detect concealed weapons from a standoff distance, especially when it is impossible to arrange the flow of people through a controlled procedure. Terahertz radiation is emitted as part of the black body radiation from anything with temperatures greater than about 10 Kelvin.Terahertz waves maintain reasonable penetration depth in certain common materials, such as cloth, plastic, wood, sand and soil. Therefore, THz radiation can detect concealed weapons since many nonmetallic, non-polar materials are transparent to this type of...

Harmless screening of humans for the detection of concealed objects

Safety and Security Engineering VI, 2015

Multispectral screening systems are becoming more popular because of a wide range of applications. Terahertz and infrared radiation have unique properties applicable to the field of surveillance and security systems. One of the most significant applications of multispectral screening systems is the prevention of terrorist attacks. Visual detection of objects hidden under clothing of a person is one of the most challenging problems of threat detection. There are many solutions to the problem; however, the most effective utilize multispectral surveillance imagers. We investigate the possibility of harmlessly detecting objects covered by various types of clothing in three spectrums-visible, infrared and terahertz. The terahertz range of electromagnetic radiation has considerable potential to detect hidden objects because it penetrates clothes. The infrared imagers are also very useful in searching for concealed objects because infrared cameras can detect small temperature differences on the surface of clothing. Radiation from these three ranges is harmless to humans. We present the detection methodology using infrared and terahertz imagers as complementary sensors to provide image data for a multispectral threat detection system. Possible ways of using the results are also presented.

Imagerie et spectroscopie Terahertz: applications aux problématiques de défense et de sécurité

2015

The aim of this work is to demonstrate the potential and capabilities of terahertz technology for parcels screening and inspection to detect threats such as weapons and explosives, without the need to open the parcel.In this study, we first present terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and spectral imaging for explosives detection. Two types of explosives as well as their binary mixture is analyzed. Due to the complexity of extracting information when facing such mixtures of samples, three chemometric tools are used: principal component analysis (PCA), partial least square analysis (PLS) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The analyses are applied to terahertz spectral data and to spectral-images in order to: (i) describe a set of unknown data and identify similarities between samples by PCA; (ii) create a classification model and predict the belonging of unknown samples to each of the classes, by PLS-DA; (iii) create a model able to quantify and predict the explo...

THz imaging and sensing for security applications---explosives, weapons and drugs

Semiconductor Science and Technology, 2005

Over the past 5 years, there has been a significant interest in employing terahertz (THz) technology, spectroscopy and imaging for security applications. There are three prime motivations for this interest: (a) THz radiation can detect concealed weapons since many non-metallic, non-polar materials are transparent to THz radiation; (b) target compounds such as explosives and illicit drugs have characteristic THz spectra that can be used to identify these compounds and (c) THz radiation poses no health risk for scanning of people. In this paper, stand-off interferometric imaging and sensing for the detection of explosives, weapons and drugs is emphasized. Future prospects of THz technology are discussed.

THz spectroscopy and imaging in security applications

2012 19th International Conference on Microwaves, Radar & Wireless Communications, 2012

We compared terahertz transmission spectra of explosives measured by means of Time Domain Spectroscopy (TDS) and an Optical Parametric Oscillator-based system (OPO). Reflection spectra of pure explosives were measured in reflection configuration by means of TDS in the range 0.3-2.5THz. We also analyzed influence of the surface roughness on reflectance and phase spectra of RDX-plastic based explosives. Next, we present a thermal phantom of human body working in THz range, which was developed for testing of THz cameras. We demonstrate the possibility of improvement of the quality of the image captured by a commercially available passive THz camera.

New Real-Time Sub-Terahertz Security Body Scanner

Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, 2020

In response to the urgent demand for efficient, safe, and speedy imaging in remote security screening applications, a new sub-terahertz security body scanner has been developed. Integration of innovative THz sensing technique and advanced IMPATTdiode-based signal-generating technology resulted in a cost-effective cutting-edge system capable of real-time visualization of the threats hidden under the clothes of people. This paper introduces the new 100-GHz security scanner and presents the test results which demonstrate that it can perform through-garment detection at standoff ranges of 3-6 m with respective lateral resolution of 3-6 cm. The depth of the field of the system has been determined experimentally to be approximately 30 cm.

STANDOFF DETECTION OF HIDDEN EXPLOSIVES AND COLD AND FIRE ARMS BY TERAHERTZ TIME-DOMAIN SPECTROSCOPY AND ACTIVE SPECTRAL IMAGING (REVIEW)

Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and standoff spectral imaging for detection of explosives and cold and fi re arms hidden, for example, under clothing, were reviewed. Special attention was paid to different schemes for practical implementation of these methods. Progress in this direction and existing problems and the prospects for their solution were discussed. Issues related to sources and receivers of terahertz radiation were briefl y discussed. It was noted that interest in quantum-cascade lasers as compact sources of terahertz radiation and the potential of using them at room temperature were increasing.