ACID - Accelerated Contraband Identification by Diffraction

ACID will combine two disruptive technologies to produce the fastest and most reliable automatic contraband identification security scanner. The innovative ACID scanner uses a unique, patented X-ray diffraction method from Nottingham Trent Universities (NTU) and Cranfield (CU) Universities and a world leading energy resolving X-ray detector from STFC to be able to identify threat and contraband materials such as drugs and explosives.

The ACID technology is needed as current state of the art security scanners cannot discriminate robustly threat and contraband materials from everyday items. This leads to high false alarm rates, manual secondary scans/searches, which cause bottlenecks at security checkpoints and still do not identify many contraband items [1]. The current methods of measuring the transmitted X-rays through a cluttered inspection volume to estimate the density and average atomic numbers of the materials that might be present do not provide sufficient sensitivity or specificity. ACID will measure diffracted X-ray flux to enable the calculation of the spacing between atomic planes or d spacings to provide a unique "chemical fingerprint" to identify material phase.

X-ray diffraction is a well-established technique that has been used for many years to characterise materials in the laboratory environment. Until now, X-ray diffraction has been a relatively slow technique, which has prohibited its use in areas such as security screening. ACID overcomes these limitations by using patented focal construct geometry (FCG) that provides an "amplified" diffraction signal and the HEXITEC energy resolving imaging detector to provide a high rate measurement over the entire diffraction signal range of interest whilst using only conventional X-ray sources. This unique combination of technique and technology is essential to provide an accurate, fast, cost-effective and automatic security scanner that can identify contraband and threat materials.

The ACID project will deliver a scanner to automatically identify contraband in postal and personal items such as phones and laptops. This will provide a platform technology that can address immediately the increasing need to screen such items at secure facilities, large events and soft urban targets such as railway stations. The project partners include Halo X-ray Technologies Ltd (a spin out of NTU and CU) who will take this ACID scanner to market and develop a range of automatic contraband identification scanner products.

There is a clear market drive to have technologies such the ACID scanner deployed as we move into the next decade. The CLASP funding is essential to combine two areas of UK expertise and enable the ACID technology to be developed to a sufficiently mature level to address this time limited market. The automated ACID scanner will not only make security screening easier, faster and more pleasant for the public it will importantly meet the ever increasing need to make our borders, cities and buildings safer by identifying threat and contraband materials.

[1]http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/02/us-airport-security-raised-after-fake-weapons-missed-by-screenings

The ACID scanner will take unique UK technology, techniques and expertise to solve a global security need to automatically identify contraband and threat materials. The impact form the ACID technology will be wide ranging with quicker screening for the public, more accurate and cheaper to operate automatic machines for security providers, economic growth and job opportunities in the UK and ultimately a reliable method to stem the flow of narcotics and threat materials that will make our buildings, infrastructure and boarders more secure.

The ACID scanner developed in this project will address the market of screening personal items and post in secure facilities, at large events and at urban soft targets such as railway stations. We conservatively estimate that this scanner will have access to an addressable market of $50M/year through Halo X-ray within 12 months from the end of the project. The technology in the ACID scanner will form the basis of a full baggage scanner with investment from Halo X-ray and a separate research grant (separate to and outside the scope of the CLASP call) within NTU and CU to deconvolve the diffraction signal in large cluttered items. This larger scanner will address the full security screening market that is expected to reach $9.1B by 2020 as it grows with a CAGR of 9.5%. The market is largely driven by TSA who will be replacing all of the scanners in 450 of their airports, with a desired to us automated detection such as ACID, as we move into the next decade. As the scanners have a lifetime of 10+ years it is essential that the ACID project develops the personal item scanner and platform technology now to meet this time limited demand.

Halo X-ray, who have the sole rights to exploit the FCG technique, anticipate c.£25M income over the 5 years from the end of this project, which would generate c.£0.5M of license revenue for STFC. This will also lead to the employment of up to 30 skilled people in the UK.

The automatic identification of the contraband and threat materials in the ACID scanner will have multiple benefits. Security screening will be quicker as secondary scans and false alarms will be negated, resulting in a more pleasant process for the public and a cheaper to operate scanner with fewer staff for the security provider.

The highly specific identification of materials in the ACID scanner will make it possible to identify almost any material and easily target new contraband such as legal highs or embargoed goods by updating the library of materials that are checked against the measured diffraction patterns. This will make the scanner easy to deploy in intelligence lead and targeted operations but also ensures the technology will meet future demands.

The ACID technology could be used directly in a number of other markets such as screening for fake pharmaceuticals (estimated $5M/year market). With some additional development it could be used to screen for bone fracture risk, replacing DEXA scans in a $100M/year market or for industrial process screening in the cement, mining and chemical industry with an addressable market of $85M/yr.

The most significant impact from the ACID scanner are the unquantifiable societal improvements that it could be part of. Although it could never be the sole force in preventing terrorist attacks or the import of narcotics it could be an invaluable tool to identify and deter such activities in the future. The ACID technology is a novel opportunity for the UK research community to make a major impact in this global need to be able to automatically identify the contraband that threaten our societies.