Tech Companies See Market for Detection

October 1, 2001 | Source: Washington Post

Cutting-edge identification and detection technologies have helped specialists in the battle against terrorism, but the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center could transform these once exotic gadgets into everyday tools of airport safety.
Biometrics technologies include detecting stress by reading flickering eye movements, X-rays to conduct virtual strip-searches, facial recognition (videotaping faces in a crowded room and matching them to known terrorists), measuring eye movements against a computerized signature that detects stress, and a desktop machine that can tell whether a passenger has handled explosives by swabbing down a piece of luggage and running the sample through on-site chemical analysis.