ALERT | Awareness and Localization of Explosive-Related Threats

Advanced Imaging Technology for Whole Body Imaging
F2-G (Phase 1)

Download the 2013 Project Report

The Advanced Imaging Technology project completes its third year of development of an improved multi-modality portal-based passenger screening system. Millimeter-wave (mm-wave), x-ray backscatter, supplemented by Kinect surface depth mapping have been implemented, and infrared sensing and passive mm-wave sensing is being considered. The 56-64 GHz mm-wave imaging system has produced several hardware and data processing innovations. These include: a novel Blade Beam reflector transmitting antenna that produces narrow target illumination to allow accurate stacked 2D reconstructions of the 3D surface; a carefully positioned multistatic array receiving antenna for artifact-free imaging; and a fast data processing technique, based on the Fast Multipole Method (FMM), that produces 2D SAR images from scattered field samples. The specially-built hardware platform facilitates reconfigurable sensor placement in order to develop the multistatic imaging radar system. In addition, a patent-pending algorithm has been developed for determining the dielectric constant of weak dielectric objects attached to the body. These improvements lead to faster, more accurate whole body imaging to improve the security screening process, with improved detection capabilities validated by means of measurements carried out with a first mm-wave portal prototype.