- International Technologies Lasers (ITL), which is based
in Rishon Letzion, has developed a device that can analyze and identify
chemical elements by remote laser sensing harmless to the eyes and body.
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- The significance is that for the first time cars and
people may be scanned from several meters away to detect explosives, drugs
or other illegal materials.
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- The security establishment is showing a keen interest
in the new device, and ITL is expected to sign a contract with the Public
Security Ministry in the near future. Several branches of the United States
security forces have also examined the device and are enthusiastic about
its performance.
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- Company CEO Ami Rub said the device will be tested in
the field by the end of this year. He said the company's own tests give
the device a success rate of close to 100 percent in recognizing and detecting
materials.
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- ITL specializes in products and devices for the security
establishment and other military bodies. Among the items it produces are
night vision equipment and optic sights. In 2001, the company invested
$2.5 million in research, specifically to identify poison gases using remote
sensing.
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- To that end, several top scientists were recruited. In
a short time, the company realized it had developed a device that could
recognize other types of dangerous substances as well.
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- The device is made up of three main components - a laser
beam, a spectrometer and a computer. It fires a laser beam at the target.
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- "The molecules or crystals the laser hits react,"
said Dr. Mordechai Brestel, the head of the company's research team. "Any
substance hit by the beam emits an invisible light with its own unique
wavelength, like an individual fingerprint" and the spectrometer analyzes
the result of the emission.
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- Brestel says the company has developed a unique capability
to decipher the results and to transfer them to a computer with a database
of the characteristics of various substances.
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- The computer then compares between its database and the
results that the spectrometer produces, and gives the operator a real time
warning if the subject of the test contains traces of dangerous or illegal
substances. The device works up to a range of several dozen meters.
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- The company admits the device cannot examine objects
inside a sealed container - a car trunk, for example - but Rub says substances
still leave easily-detectable traces.
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- Ami Rodrich, ITL's business director, said the technology,
for which U.S. and Israeli patents have been applied, has a wide variety
of potential applications.
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- "At airports across the world, there is always a
bottleneck where cargo and baggage have to be examined before being loaded
onto the plane. Using our device, the check can be carried out in seconds."
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- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/422023.html
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