System and method for detecting contraband

• US 20060165217A1
• Filed: 05/04/2004
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Morpho Detection LLC (Smiths Group International Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: GE Homeland Protection Incorporated (Safran SA)
• Inventors: Skatter, Sondre
• Granted Patent: US 7,366,281 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 378/57
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 5/22 Active interrogation, i.e. by irradiating objects or goods using external radiation sources, e.g. using gamma rays or cosmic rays

Abstract

According to one aspect of the invention, a contraband detection apparatus is provided and a method of detecting contraband are provided. A container is scanned with a first type of contraband detection apparatus. Based on results of the first scan, a plurality of risk values, which correspond to particular types of contraband, are generated. The container is then scanned with a second type of contraband detection apparatus. Based on the results of the second scan, the risk values are modified. If the combined risk values are above a predetermined value, an alarm is triggered.

Claims

1. A method of detecting contraband comprising:

scanning a container with a first type of contraband detection apparatus;

based on results of said scanning with the first type of contraband detection apparatus, generating a plurality of preliminary risk values, each preliminary risk value indicative of the presence of a respective type of contraband;

scanning the container with a second type of contraband detection apparatus; and

based on results of said scanning with the second type of contraband detection apparatus, modifying the preliminary risk values to generate a plurality of final risk values, each final risk value corresponding to a respective one of the preliminary risk values and indicative of the presence of a respective type of contraband.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the preliminary risk values are on a numerical probability scale having a lower limit and an upper limit between 0 and 100 percent.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

entering information of a person taking the container for loading into a loading bay of a craft; and

based on the information, generating a personal risk value, said generating of the plurality of preliminary risk values being based on the personal risk value and the results of said scanning with the first type of contraband detection apparatus.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising triggering an alarm based on at least one of the final risk values.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first type of contraband detection apparatus is a CT scanner.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second type of contraband detection apparatus is a QR scanner.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said scanning with the CT scanner takes place before said scanning with the QR scanner.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising scanning the container with a third type of contraband detection apparatus and based on results of said scanning with the third type of contraband detection apparatus, generating a plurality of intermediate risk values, said generating of the plurality of final risk values being further based on said scanning of the container with a third type of contraband detection apparatus and the intermediate risk values.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first type of contraband detection apparatus is a CT scanner, the second type of contraband detection apparatus is a QR scanner, and the third type of contraband detection apparatus is a trace detector.

10. A method of detecting contraband comprising:

entering information of a person taking a container for loading into a loading bay of a craft;

based on the information, generating a personal risk value;

scanning the container with a first contraband detection apparatus; and

based on the personal risk value and results of said scanning, generating at least a preliminary risk value.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising scanning the container with a second contraband detection apparatus and based on the preliminary risk value and results of said scanning with the second contraband detection apparatus, generating an intermediate threat state.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising scanning the container with a third contraband detection apparatus and based on the intermediate threat state and results of said scanning with the third contraband detection apparatus, generating a final threat state.

13. A method of detecting contraband comprising:

scanning a container with a first contraband detection apparatus;

based on results of said scanning with the first contraband detection apparatus, generating an preliminary risk value on a numerical probability scale having a lower limit and an upper limit between 0 and 100 percent;

scanning the container with a second contraband detection apparatus; and

based on the preliminary risk value and results of said scanning with the second contraband detection apparatus, generating a final risk value.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising scanning the container with a third contraband detection apparatus and based on results of said scanning with the third type of contraband detection apparatus, generating an intermediate risk value, said generating of the final risk value being further based on results of said scanning of the container with the third contraband detection apparatus and the intermediate risk value.

15. A method of detecting contraband comprising:

scanning a container with a first contraband detection apparatus;

based on results of said scanning with the first contraband detection apparatus, generating a plurality of preliminary risk values, each preliminary risk value corresponding to a particular type of contraband;

scanning the container with a second contraband detection apparatus; and

based on the preliminary risk values and results of said scanning with the second contraband detection apparatus, generating a plurality of final risk values, each final risk value corresponding to a particular type of contraband.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising scanning the container with a third contraband detection apparatus and based on results of said scanning with the third type of contraband detection apparatus, generating a plurality of intermediate risk values, said generating of the plurality of final risk values being further based on results of said scanning of the container with the third contraband detection apparatus and the intermediate risk values.

17. A method of detecting contraband, comprising:

accepting as input data a plurality of risk values, each risk value indicative of the presence of a respective type of contraband;

modifying the risk values, based on risk assessment applying an empirical or expert based quantification of its risk assessment within a specified risk calculus; and

outputting the said modified risk values.

18. A contraband detection system comprising:

a contraband detection apparatus to scan a container for contraband; and

a computer connected to the contraband detection apparatus to generate a personal risk value based information of a person taking the container for loading into a loading bay of a craft and at least a preliminary risk value based on the personal risk value and results of said scanning.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising a second contraband detection apparatus to scan the container for contraband and wherein the computer is further to generate an intermediate risk value based on the preliminary risk value and results of said scanning with the second contraband detection apparatus.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a third contraband detection apparatus to scan the container for contraband and wherein the computer is further to generate an intermediate risk value based on the preliminary risk value and results of said scanning with the third contraband detection apparatus.

21. A contraband detection system comprising:

a first contraband detection apparatus to perform a first scan on a container for contraband;

a second contraband detection apparatus to perform a second scan on the container for contraband; and

a computer connected to the first and second detection apparatuses to generate a plurality of preliminary risk values based on results of the first scan, each preliminary risk value corresponding to a particular type of contraband, and a plurality of final risk values based on the preliminary risk values and results of the second scan, each final risk value corresponding to a particular type of contraband.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the preliminary risk values are on a numerical probability scale having a lower limit and an upper limit between 0 and 100 percent.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the computer is further to generate a plurality of personal risk values based information of a person taking the container for loading into a loading bay of a craft and the preliminary risk values are further based on the personal risk value and results of said scanning.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising an alarm and wherein the computer triggers the alarm if at least one of the final risk values exceeds a predetermined amount.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the first type of contraband detection apparatus is a CT scanner.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the second type of contraband detection apparatus is a QR scanner.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein said scanning with the CT scanner takes place before said scanning with the QR scanner.

28. The system of claim 21, further comprising a third contraband detection apparatus to perform a third scan on the container for contraband, wherein the computer is further to generate a plurality of intermediate risk values based on the results of the first scan and the preliminary risk values, and wherein the final risk values are further based on the intermediate risk values.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the first type of contraband detection apparatus is a CT scanner, the second type of contraband detection apparatus is a QR scanner, and the third type of contraband detection apparatus is a trace detector.

30. A system for detecting contraband in a container comprising:

a risk assessment agent that accept as input data a plurality of risk values, each risk value indicative of the presence of a respective type of contraband, said risk assessment agent modifying the risk values, based on its own risk assessment applying an empirical or expert based quantification of its risk assessment within a specified risk calculus and said agent outputting the said modified risk values.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the risk assessment agent is a virtual agent residing outside of a physical risk assessment unit.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the risk assessment agent incorporates sensor data for a container.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the risk assessment agent is embedded in a contraband detection apparatus scanning the container.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein the risk assessment agent applies an assessment of the general threat state.

35. The system of claim 30, wherein the risk assessment agent is a passenger profiling screening system assessing the relative risk of individuals, to whom the container belongs.

36. The system of claim 30, wherein the risk values are probabilities, with values between 0 and 1.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the sum of the probabilities of each threat category and the probability of no threat is 1.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the risk calculus is Bayesian probability, and the likelihood of the observation given to the various threat categories is used.

39. The system of claim 30, where multiple risk assessment agents are combined in series, each using the previous agent'"'"'s risk value output as risk value input.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the system of systems provides decentralized data fusion.

41. The system of claim 40, where a decision whether to alarm or not is based on the output threat values.

42. The system of claim 41, where a decision whether to send container to another risk assessment agent is based on the output threat state.

43. The system of claim 41, wherein the decision whether to alarm or not is whether the sum of the risk values exceeds a threshold.

44. The system of claim 33, wherein the contraband detection apparatus is a CT scanner.

45. The system of claim 33, wherein the contraband detection apparatus is a QR scanner.

46. The system of claim 39, wherein one of the contraband detection apparatuses is a QR scanner and another is a CT scanner.