March 09, 2006
New Transit Machines Could Detect Explosives
If they work as intended, the machines could have the potential to thwart attacks such as the London transport bombings last July.
The automatic ticket vendor, shown for the first time at a conference in Washington, D.C., this week, incorporates a GE Security-developed fingertip "trace detection analyzer."
It has been selected for a transit pilot program to be announced in the coming weeks, said General Electric Co. and partner Cubic.
Cubic, which installed New York City Transit's MetroCard fare pass system, said the companies are inviting public transit authorities to help them further develop the system.
The new technology comes as some U.S. cities have been making slow progress in installing anti-terror devices.
New York as of last month still had not spent $591 million allocated more than three years ago to protect its vast subway system.
Still, it has announced a deal with a group of contractors led by Lockheed Martin Corp. for a $212 million system comprising video cameras and motion detectors. Cubic is a subcontractor on that program.
~I believe the operative word here is 'could'. Better read as 'might'?
If the technology exists "to detect traces of explosives on ticket buyers' fingers" why in heaven's name would anyone announce it to the world? Can you see how such a device would be more valuable if the bad guys don't know it exists? I'm guessing Cubic Corp. here is blowing smoke, looking for money for nothing.
But if the idea is to have an excuse to search and detain profiled transit riders because the quote fingertip-trace-detection-analyzer unquote has "identified" them, then it doesn't matter what's in the box but the public would need to believe the bells and whistles? I don't know.
[photo from Ken Goldberg\ not GE, Cubic or Reuters]