Press Releases

Security: It’s Still There…You Just Can’t See It
UM, Pharad Developing System to Detect Weapons in Open Spaces Through MIPS

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Sick of leaving four hours before your flight departs just to stand in a single-file security line? 

Pharad LLC is teaming with A. James Clark School of Engineering researchers in a Maryland Industrial Partnerships project to further develop its weapons detection system, which scans people for weapons in open spaces—such as airport, train, or subway terminals—as they walk by.

“It is analogous to a video camera in the sense that it constantly sees and monitors a scene,” said Pharad President Austin Farnham.  “Except its eyes are wide-band, millimeter wave signals.”

The system employs ceiling or wall-mounted sensors that send out radio-wave-like signals to analyze their surroundings.  The sensors send data to a computer system, which uses algorithms to detect weapon “fingerprints” on the signals. 

When guns, knives—or eventually bombs and explosives—are detected, the system sends an alert and a video feed to security.

Dr. K. J. Ray Liu, professor and associate chair of graduate studies and research in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Institute for Systems Research, is working with Pharad to develop the algorithm.   

“This is a state-of-the-art signal processing algorithm that first detects if a weapon is present, then classifies what kind of weapon it is,” said Liu. 

Each weapon has a unique signature defined by a set of electromagnetic resonances that reflect differently depending on its physical makeup. Pharad is testing various weapons to develop a signature library.

“Right now we are still in the development phases; we still have more than a year of development work before it will be on the market,” said Farnham.

While the initial system will detect concealed weapons, Pharad plans to add signatures to find disguised weapons, as well as bombs and explosives.

“We could even detect something like a gun in the shape of a cell phone,” said Dr. Dalma Novak, vice-president of Pharad. 

The concealed weapons detection equipment market will be nearly $10 billion by 2010, according to the Homeland Security Research Corp. The Department of Homeland Security recently gave the company a $750,000 Phase Two Small Business Innovation Research Grant.  BusinessWeek reports that there are 300,000 to 400,000 travel gateways in the U.S. and Europe alone, a number that could double by 2010.

The company hopes to install its system in venues such as train, airport and bus stations, as well as convenience stores and malls. 

“Convenience stores will find this technology just as useful because it warns a cashier that someone is walking in with a weapon before an altercation can occur,” said Novak. 

Pharad was founded in 2003.  The company sells various wireless sensors, communications, and antenna products.

About MIPS (www.mips.umd.edu)
The Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program accelerates the commercialization of technology in Maryland by jointly funding collaborative R&D projects between companies and University System of Maryland faculty.

About Pharad (www.pharad.com)
Pharad is revolutionizing the wireless communications industry with advances in proprietary wireless technologies for the commercial wireless sector, as well as Military, and Homeland Security applications.

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