Security scanners with capacitance and magnetic sensor arrays
First Claim
1. A method of detecting concealed dangerous objects in luggage comprising the steps of:
- positioning known objects relative to capacitive and inductive sensors;
recording changes in capacitance and inductance in the vicinity of the capacitive and inductive sensors when each of a plurality of known objects is positioned in the vicinity;
building image and knowledge data bases containing data regarding each of the known objects;
moving luggage containing unknown objects relative to capacitive and inductive sensors;
comparing changes in capacitance and inductance in the vicinity of the unknown objects with data in the image and knowledge databases; and
determining whether or not the object is a dangerous object.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Security scanning devices based on electrical tomography, including tomography systems based on the measurement of capacitance (ECT) and electromagnetic tomography (EMT), in combination with knowledge-based image analysis and understanding. Each device comprises a sensing head or transducer, sensing electronics, image reconstruction and image analysis microprocessor (either microcontroller, DSP, laptop or desktop PC), a display unit and accompanying software for identifying dangerous materials and items. The security scanning devices enable enhancement of image resolution with ECT and EMT. More sensors, more sensitive circuits and flexible/optimal measurement protocols may be employed for obtaining more independent measurements and enable implementation of data fusion to combine the complementary sensitivity of ECT and EMT to different material properties, while providing architecture to implement image knowledge bases, which may characterize objects, whose image attributes are acquired from multiple sensors.
19 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method of detecting concealed dangerous objects in luggage comprising the steps of:
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positioning known objects relative to capacitive and inductive sensors;
recording changes in capacitance and inductance in the vicinity of the capacitive and inductive sensors when each of a plurality of known objects is positioned in the vicinity;
building image and knowledge data bases containing data regarding each of the known objects;
moving luggage containing unknown objects relative to capacitive and inductive sensors;
comparing changes in capacitance and inductance in the vicinity of the unknown objects with data in the image and knowledge databases; and
determining whether or not the object is a dangerous object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 8)
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5. A method for scanning, identifying and imaging devices in a sensing space, comprising the steps of:
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positioning a plurality of arrays of sensor means adjacent a sensing space;
positioning a device to be scanned, identified and imaged in said sensing space;
developing a plurality of electric fields between at least one excitation electrode of a first array of excitation electrodes and each detection electrode of a second array of detection electrodes of said sensor means in response to input signals applied to said first array of excitation electrodes of said sensor means;
dividing the sensing space into small cubes in multiple layers;
delivering signals from each detection electrode of said second array of detection electrodes of said sensor means to a data acquisition system; and
analyzing signals received by said data acquisition system to determine the nature of the devices and identification of devices in said sensing space. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A security scanning device for scanning, identifying and imaging the contents of devices in a sensing space, comprising:
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a plurality of arrays of sensor means adjacent the sensing space;
means for developing a plurality of electric fields between at least one excitation electrode and each of a plurality of detection electrodes of a second array of detection electrodes of said sensor means in response to input signals applied to said excitation electrode of said sensor means;
means for dividing the sensing space into small cubes in multiple layers;
means for delivering signals from each detection electrode of said second array of detection electrodes of said sensor means to a data acquisition system;
means for analyzing signals received by said data acquisition system to determine the nature of the devices in said sensing space and to image a cross-section of the device; and
a knowledge database associated with said means for analyzing signals received by said data acquisition system, said database being indexed such that data is used for back propagation for identifying concealed objects. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification