Replies to post #14215 on Cdex, Inc. (fka CDEX)

[paige]

Diddy here is another positive article on ahura..

I don't understand...If everything is so positive why aren't they in the Airports?

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Business & Technology
A New Way to Detect
Liquid Explosives
To defend against future attacks, airports may soon get new tools to help ID hidden explosives
By JEREMY CAPLAN
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHORRelated: Terror's Secret Weapon
Photo Essay: Airline Terror

Posted Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006
The foiled terror plot in Great Britain aimed to exploit vulnerabilities in airport security, but new technology may help patch those holes. In recent months, the Transportation Security Administration has begun testing a new tool for detecting such materials, security industry sources tell TIME. The device, Ahura's FirstDefender, is a handheld chemical identification system about the size of a hardcover book. The FBI, U.S. Customs and Immigration and the Department of Homeland Security have already begun using the gadget to detect and identify chemical hazards, but it hasn't yet been implemented in airports. The TSA recently deployed two $160,000 explosives detection machines for Chicago's Midway International Airport, but those machines, known as puffers, aren't made to identify sealed liquids. The agency has yet to put into place FirstDefender devices, which cost about $30,000, though it now confirms that it is testing the FirstDefender. "Ports of entry need technology to identify dangerous substances within containers," says Ahura CEO Doug Kahn.

Older machines used to examine liquids were so large that they were generally anchored to labs. But given the portability of this 3.5-pound tool, the TSA could quickly deploy it in airports nationwide. The gadget is simple enough to use that airport screeners and security officials with just several hours of training could monitor suspicious materials in transit. In its latest iteration, the FirstDefender can identify 2,500 liquid and solid substances. The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center issued a recent assessment of the new handheld as an effective portable tool in detecting dangerous substances, including sarin and mustard gas: "The FirstDefender can be suitable for (non-trace) field detection and identification of liquid that may contain CW [chemical weapon] agents," the report concluded.

The waterproof and shockproof device has already been used by hazmat teams in New York and Washington and in military operations, and Ahura has plans to develop an even smaller, cell-phone-size implement. How does the technology work? Explosive liquids tend to have strong chemical signatures, which the device can read, even through bottles or other containers. The technique employed, called Raman spectroscopy, uses a laser for optical analysis. After shining a light on a substance, liquid or solid, the device analyzes the optical characteristics of the scattered light that reflects back. "You can read the substance as if it had a bar code," explains Ahura founder Daryoosh Vakhshoori.

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This is what the TSA said...


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TSA spokeswoman Kudwa said the agency has been evaluating the First Defender system in US airports since October, along with the General Dielectric system, but the devices have not always proven reliable.

``We are seeing high false alarm rates for the solutions we are testing right now," she said.

Ahura spokeswoman Kerstin Barr said First Defender has an accuracy rate of about 95 percent.

Kudwa also noted that many passengers carry several containers of fluid in carry-on bags.

The First Defender would require about 15 seconds to identify the contents in each , resulting in a slowdown at security checkpoints.

Ahura's director of operations Mark Spillane agreed that using the First Defender on every passenger is impractical.

Instead, it would be used on people who had already been tabbed as suspicious. ``Somehow, the security people have got to identify the threat," Spillane said.