Sensors aid safety and security for transport and buildings

Citation

Koschan, A. (2006), "Sensors aid safety and security for transport and buildings", Sensor Review, Vol. 26 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2006.08726caa.002

Sensors aid safety and security for transport and buildings

Mobility is one of the biggest achievements and challenges intoday’s technological world. We import and export goods, we travel for business and for leisure, and we commute between our homes and work places. In all these cases, we strongly depend upon the continued functioning of a wide array of complex machinery and equipment for our everyday safety and security. No matter if we travel by car, by rail, or by air, we expect all equipment and personnel to function wherever and whenever we need them. When they fail, the results can be fatal. Recently, the vulnerability of public locations where many people gather – such as airports, bus stations, railroad stations or sea ports – to planned attacks was made evident. These catastrophic events may occur in addition to possible malfunctions of the equipment or fatigue of its operators. Thus, the desire for safety and security in airports, bus stations, railroad stations, and ports has been increasing significantly lately.

To illustrate the multitude of sensors that are involved in modern transport, I would like to give the example of my last air trip from Europe to the USA. After my passport was scanned at the check-in counter to verify my identity and my luggage was tagged with a machine-readable bar code of my final destination, I received my boarding pass and proceeded directly to the security check. There my carry-on luggage was subjected to X-ray inspection while I was passed through a metal detector. Since, my belt triggered an alarm, an additional mobile metal detector was applied for security. At the gate, a card reader read my boarding pass to ensure that all passengers with checked luggage had entered the plane. When I reached my seat, the pilots were communicating wirelessly with the control tower where air controllers were checking the incoming and outgoing traffic on their radar screens. Skipping all the sensors that measured and controlled temperature, speed, pressure, and functions of the airplane during the flight, I continue with my arrival at the terminal in Washington, DC. Under the surveillance of several video cameras I approached the immigration desk where my passport was scanned again. In addition, a digital picture was taken of me for automatic face recognition and my fingerprints were electronicly scanned. My checked baggage was then screened using explosive detection systems (EDS) and explosives trace detection (ETD) equipment before I could move to my connecting flight.

A lot of the sensors and signal processing techniques mentioned above are just recently available for deployment and there is still a need for further improvement. While conventional X-ray imaging, as mainly applied 10 years ago, could only identify absorption and not material, modern dual energy X-ray machines combine low- and high-energy X-ray images to analyze material. Mobile and small EDS were only developed a few years ago. Biometric security systems need more testing to enhance reliability of 24/7 usage under changing environmental conditions and consideration of the intention of a suspect to disguise himself or herself. In addition to security applications, sensors also aid the achievement of higher safety standards. For example, mobile pavement inspection systems applying laser range scanning and video imaging can detect cracks and holes in runways and roadways more precisely and efficiently than conventional manual inspection. In summary, I believe that the development and deployment of advanced sensors in cooperation with modern signal and image processing techniques are the main components in safety and security for modern transport and buildings.

The author Andreas Koschan is based at Imaging, Robotics and Intelligent Systems Laboratory, University of Tennessee, USA