Case Studies

Radiation detection

by Mark Rowe

Nations can regulate the movement of animals, goods and people through the measures which are followed by the border control forces of a country or bloc of countries. A lot of technological advancements have assisted border control forces to conduct their work.

The term Internet of Things, as well as its acronym IoT, will have you thinking about a few technological advancements. You may envision someone altering their home’s smart thermostat when sat at their office desk, or a person turning on a lightbulb using a smartphone app. However, global management consulting and professional services firm Accenture has acknowledged that custom agencies can also be using IoT to enhance their operations.

Accenture detailed the technology by using the Hamburg Port Authority in Germany as a case in point. This is due to the organisation utilising the technology to improve how they monitor cargo and track journeys. Data is collected by the authority from sensors which are embedded into bridges, containers, roadways and vehicles, and then analysed. Once the analysis is complete, the findings can be delivered to officers remotely, as well as fed into schedules and assisting road authorities to channel traffic in more effective manners.

Instances of fraud and other crimes can be found by analysing the data that’s gathered from IoT operations too. Accenture explains: “For instance, IoT can check whether cargo actually moves along the declared routes or detect potential tampering by tracking unexpected temperature changes in containers.”

Holographic printers

Zebra Imaging and the company’s $1 million holographic printers were referenced by VICE within their report about the Tenth Annual Border Security Expo in San Antonio, Texas. According to the report, these machines were already being utilised at Border Control stations in El Paso, San Diego and Tucson — having initially been sold to the US military for use across Iraq and Afghanistan and producing some 14,000 images during missions throughout the Middle East.

With the technology, a Zebra Imaging spokesperson claims that a drone or an individual can take an aerial photograph of a border of concern. That photo is then printed using the holographic printer, which can then be used to gain a better understanding of the landscape and to deploy effective missions if necessary.

“Holograms do not save lives and they do not stop bullets, but what they do is give people a cognitive idea of what’s going on around them physically,” Rick Black, the Director of Government Relations at Zebra Imaging, pointed out. “We provide you that visual sense of presence — a hologram looks so natural, you think it’s a solid model. Your brain thinks it’s a full model even though you know intellectually it’s a light pad.”

Optimal training tools can also be accessed via this technology, the Zebra Imaging spokesperson goes on. This is because the immersive holographic images can function more effectively than either maps or models are able to. Mr Black underlined this point by showing a 3D image of some borderlands in Arizona at the San Antonio expo, complete with vivid mountains. “This provides a 360-degree full view,” Mr Black acknowledged. “It’s to give the agents a presence of where they are so if they’re doing a mission plan, for instance, when I point here you all know exactly where I’m pointing.”

The D3S wearable RIID

Kromek, a developer of radiation detection products based on cadmium zinc telluride, has developed the D3S wearable RIID. It’s already been deployed by the New Jersey Port Authority and followed the President of the United States on one of his trips to Europe. The acronym stands for a Radiation Isotope Identification Device. This is designed to detect radiological threats such as radioactive contamination, dirty bombs, radiation at the scene of an accident or a terrorist attack, and the smuggling of radioactive substances. Turn the detector on and then launch the accompanying app on your smartphone and the gadget will continuously scan for radiation without anyone needing to see it in operation or potential suspects to get suspicious — any alert of radiation can be picked up by your phone either sending an announcement into your earbud or simply vibrating.

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