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New airport security technology is slow to be implemented, but developments abound
By Russell Fortmeyer

	click images to view larger Courtesy Gensler
	Courtesy GE Security

The arrest of 24 alleged terrorist conspirators in London on one day in August rippled through the airline industry and left passengers worldwide facing uncertain travel prospects. Within minutes of the arrests, airline passengers were being asked by airport security agents to discard liquids, gels, and creams prior to passing through security. The incident shed further light on the limits of airport security technology: Terrorists continue to pursue ways to skirt X-ray and metal-detector devices, as well as the “sniffers” used to identify explosives residue on baggage.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, in 2005 passengers made approximately 730 million trips through airport security. Getting people through checkpoints quickly, without compromising security, is the chief concern of architects and technology designers involved in redesign of terminals throughout the world in response to post-9/11 concerns.

Steve Hill, a spokesperson for General Electric’s security division, is involved in a pilot project at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), where GE has installed a security checkpoint of the future to test developing technologies. The checkpoint, which is not used for actual security operations, employs five newer and emergent systems: EntryScan3 trace portals that look like metal detectors, but detect for explosives; computer tomography (CT) scanners for carry-on bags; millimeter wave portals to detect anomalies on a person’s body; quadripole resonance used for scanning shoes without requiring their removal; and raman spectroscopy, which can detect explosives in a variety of substances, such as baby formula.

“We’re trying to drive down the cost of security by automating it to lower the amount of people required to operate it, as well as get passengers through in around 30 seconds,” Hill says. “Ultimately, we’d like to get all of this technology integrated into a seamless environment.”

GE’s project at SFO is in addition to a pilot air-cargo screening program instituted this summer by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the airport. Chris Kelly, spokesperson for the DHS, says the program will subject non-passenger-related cargo to explosive trace scanning and X-ray machines in an effort to establish a screening methodology based on existing technology for all airports.

The DHS’s Transportation Security Laboratory in Atlantic City undertakes research into new technologies, and partners with companies to investigate advanced security systems. DHS then makes suggestions to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for final implementation.

While many of the test technologies are ready for implementation, but lack funding, some continue to pose problems. Millimeter wave devices have raised privacy concerns since the images produced of passengers walking through the devices currently leave little to the imagination. Yotam Margalit, with GE Security, said it is their hope to completely automate these systems, so a computer would scan the image and only involve a human operator under an alarm condition. When asked if leaving airport security to a computer is a risk, Margalit says “machines, by and large, have a higher level of detection than operators. We’re better off to have the two working in tandem.”

TSA has installed nearly 1,400 Explosion Detection Systems (EDS) in commercial airports since 9/11. While the majority of these systems, which are basically CT scanners, have been placed near ticketing desks inside terminals, many airports are beginning to integrate them as “in-line” screeners as part of the overall baggage-handling system, which consumes a great deal of space.

“In a number of cases, we’ve had to come in and demolish profitable concession space that just happens to be next to the security area needed for processing and queuing,” says Ron Steinert, AIA, of Gensler’s Santa Monica office. Steinert has been involved in a number of Gensler’s airport projects, including new terminals at Little Rock and renovations at LAX. He stresses flexibility in any new terminal design and points to the recent ban on liquids as a surprise that could now probably require an item-disposal station for each checkpoint that will require yet more space. He says one of the biggest challenges facing airports is finding the money to pay for security improvements, especially given the federal government’s minimal funding levels, airport authorities that are already stretched tight, and airlines that continue to lose millions.

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