Remote baggage screening method

• US 20050031076A1
• Filed: 08/30/2004
• Published: 02/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: L-3 Communications Security and Detection Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: L-3 Communications Security and Detection Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Huang, Ying, Whitson, Andrea L., Dawson, Craig, McClelland, Keith M.
• Application Number:
  US10/929,917
• Publication Number:
  US 20050031076A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 378/57
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 1/368 Arrangements or installations for routing, distributing or loading baggage
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 5/271 using a network, e.g. a remote expert, accessing remote data or the like
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method of advance baggage screening includes steps of transmitting a threat file corresponding to an item under inspection to a processing center, analyzing the threat file according to a detection algorithm at the processing center to determine a screening result for the item under inspection, and transmitting the screening result to a remotely located operator interface for access by an operator.

Claims

1. A method of remote screening of items of baggage, the method comprising steps of:

performing an X-ray scan of an item under inspection;

storing information about the item obtained during the scan;

linking a unique item identifier with the information to uniquely associate the information with the item under inspection; and

remotely analyzing the information to determine a screening result for the item under inspection.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the information about the item under inspection includes an image file that includes data corresponding to an X-ray image of the item under inspection.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of analyzing the information includes analyzing the image file to identify a region of interest in the X-ray image of the item under inspection.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the method further comprises a step of processing a portion of the image file corresponding to the region of interest in the X-ray image to determine information regarding the region of interest.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises a step of displaying the screening result on an operator interface.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of analyzing the information includes analyzing the information according to a selected detection algorithm.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of performing includes performing a CT scan of the item.