Suitcase compartmentalized for security inspection and system
First Claim
1. A method of facilitating security screening for luggage, the method comprising:
- selectively packing metal items in a piece of luggage comprising a plurality of compartments, the metal items being packed in a first of the plurality of compartments, the first compartment being designated for containing metal items in accordance with a predefined format;
selectively packing items containing liquids or gels in a second of the plurality of compartments, the second compartment being designated for containing liquids or gels in accordance with the predefined format; and
presenting the selectively packed piece of luggage for x-ray inspection in conjunction with an indication that the piece of luggage has been packed in accordance with the predefined format.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A piece of luggage, such as a suitcase, is constructed with one or more compartments of predesigned location and purpose to facilitate security inspection. Compartments may be designated to hold objects that, if obscured by other objects, carry an undesirably high likelihood of generating a false alarm because obscuring objects prevent an accurate assessment of the nature of those objects. For this reason, a compartment may be designated for liquids, gels and/or aerosols. A compartment may also be designated for objects, such as metal objects, which carry a risk of generating a false alarm if packed in a suitcase in a way that they obscure other objects and prevent an accurate determination of whether those objects are threat objects. Such compartments are positioned to ensure that the items they contain are segregated during x-ray inspection so as to neither obscure or be obscured by other objects packed in the luggage.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method of facilitating security screening for luggage, the method comprising:
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selectively packing metal items in a piece of luggage comprising a plurality of compartments, the metal items being packed in a first of the plurality of compartments, the first compartment being designated for containing metal items in accordance with a predefined format; selectively packing items containing liquids or gels in a second of the plurality of compartments, the second compartment being designated for containing liquids or gels in accordance with the predefined format; and presenting the selectively packed piece of luggage for x-ray inspection in conjunction with an indication that the piece of luggage has been packed in accordance with the predefined format. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. Luggage adapted for security inspection, the luggage comprising:
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an outer casing enclosing an inner region adapted for holding a plurality of objects; a plurality of dividers within the inner region, the plurality of dividers positioned to define a plurality of compartments hidden from view by the casing; and an indicator indicating that the plurality of compartments comprise a predefined configuration, the indicator comprising a radio-opaque member, wherein a first of the plurality of compartments is designated to contain metal objects and a second of the plurality of compartments is designated to contain liquids and/or gels in accordance with the predefined configuration. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. Luggage adapted for security inspection, the luggage comprising:
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an outer casing enclosing an inner region adapted for holding a plurality of objects; a plurality of dividers within the inner region, the plurality of dividers positioned to define a plurality of compartments hidden from view by the casing; and an RFID tag embedded in the luggage and programmed to produce an RF signal with a pattern identifying the luggage as having a predefined configuration of compartments, wherein a first of the plurality of compartments is designated to contain metal objects and a second of the plurality of compartments is designated to contain liquids and/or gels in accordance with the predefined configuration.
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18. A system for inspecting luggage, the system comprising:
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an imaging unit adapted to produce an image of the contents of a piece of luggage under inspection; a processor; and computer storage medium comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform a method comprising; acquiring an image of the piece of luggage under inspection; determining whether the piece of luggage under inspection has at least one compartment adapted to hold items of a predefined type; selectively analyzing the image in response to the determining, the selectively analyzing comprising; when the piece of luggage under inspection is not determined to have the at least one compartment, analyzing the image in accordance with a first algorithm; when the piece of luggage under inspection is determined to have the at least one compartment, analyzing the image in accordance with a second algorithm, different than the first algorithm. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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Specification