Contract forecasts likely choice for the next generation of airport and security scanners

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The announcement today by Advanced Photonix, (API), about it's new contract(see story earlier today, on this blog) with In-Q-Tel,(see below for more about In-Q-Tel), telegraphs several things that seem significant to me about the future of security scanning. Clearly, the current use of milimeter wave technology has been less than satisfactory, because simply showing an image of an item contained in cargo, or on a person, may "not tell the whole story". This message, hit home hard, with the recent cell phone-printer cartridge bombs, discovered in UPS planes which by outward appearance appeared perfectly normal.
Those that have followed this blog, know that the answer to this problem is found in time-domain terahertz, and Advanced Photonix's T-4000, is the most advanced product commercially available today.
Time-domain terahertz provides a solution, because it not only provides a visual underlying image in a scan of a person or item, but it also provides a spectroscopic analysis of the chemical composition of the item scanned. It is non-ionizing, and hence unlike an x-ray, it is not harmful to humans or organic substances.

This contract, demonstrates that the Federal Government has finally performed it's due diligence and found a much more comprehensive security device. I say this because the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), is providing the contract funding. Of course,work remains to be done, to reduce the expense of each unit, but the prior experience Advanced Photonix has already had in supplying next generation scanning to NASA on the space shuttle tiles, and foam, as well as it's current contract with the USAF, in providing next generation quality inspection of the exotic exterior of the F-35 fighter jet, gave Advanced Photonix a decided "leg-up" on any competition.

In the next few months and years, I believe we will continue to see more and more doors opening in the virgin technology that is terahertz, and we will continue to see Advanced Photonix, at the forefront of the innovation. I'm betting on it.



History of In-Q-tel
Throughout its lifetime, the CIA has operated at the cutting edge of science and technology. From the U-2 spy plane to the CORONA satellite, CIA's "wizards of Langley" earned a reputation for bold innovation and risk taking, working in advance of the private sector and other branches of government. Much of CIA's technology success was a result of identifying gaps and opportunities.

By the late 1990s, the pace of commercial IT innovation was outstripping the ability of government agencies—including the CIA—to access and incorporate. This commercial innovation was driven by private sector R&D investment which placed billions of dollars, and the nation's top talent, behind commercial technology development.


In 1998, CIA identified technology as a top strategic priority, and set out a radical plan to create a new venture that would help increase the Agency's access to private sector innovation. In-Q-Tel was chartered in February 1999 under the leadership of the Director of Central Intelligence and the Directorate of Science and Technology and with the support of the U.S. Congress. Just one among a broad range of Agency efforts aimed at acquiring needed technology, IQT was tasked with building a bridge between the Agency and a new set of technology innovators.