Security screening specialist Smiths Detection has launched its latest automated detection algorithm, iCMORE Prohibited Items.

iCMORE Prohibited Items is the latest addition to Smiths Detection’s family of smart and adaptable automatic object recognition algorithms. The software has been designed to achieve the European Civil Aviation Conference’s (ECAC) new Automated Prohibited Items Detection Systems (APIDS) certification, the company said.

The new solution uses artificial intelligence-based algorithms to automatically detect items determined to be a security risk at airport security checkpoints such as firearms, knives, scissors, axes, grenades, blasting caps, ammunition and blunt objects. With certification, such algorithms could lead to a more automated screening process which would enable alarm-only viewing of X-ray images at airport passenger checkpoints. Alarm-only viewing has been successfully used in airport hold baggage screening for years, considerably reducing the number of images needing to be viewed manually by an operator, helping to speed up screening time.

The manual review process by an operator can be further improved by using remote screening or Centralized Image Processing (CIP), which utilises a single location for the screening and analysing of X-ray images from multiple systems in different locations.

According to Smiths Detection, in light of severe staff shortages and increasing passenger numbers, this will be a key enabler for increased operational efficiency, throughput and security while also reducing operational expenditure and facilitating resource planning.

When used at non-regulated people checkpoints, the additional detection capabilities of iCMORE Prohibited Items provides invaluable support to image analysts by automatically highlighting threats for further analysis, helping to improve security outcomes. Requiring minimal training and as iCMORE has an intuitive interface it is easy to use, leading to immediate results.

iCMORE Prohibited Items will initially be available for use with Smiths Detection’s Hi-SCAN 6040 CTiX computer tomography (CT) passenger checkpoint scanner. The algorithm will then launch across additional dual-view and multi-view checkpoint systems over the coming months, for both regulated and unregulated markets.  

Image: Smiths Detection