Soon passengers serviced at Russian airports will not have to take off their shoes during preflight inspection. Intellektualniye Skaniruyushie Sistemi Company (Intellectual Scanning Systems), resident of Skolkovo Foundation’s nuclear technologies cluster, is getting ready to enter market with its latest product – Ratioplastina, TASS reports.
The innovative device looks simple and resembles ordinary floor scales: a transparent plastic platform with beautiful LED backlight and two yellow rectangles; a passenger must step on the platform to check his shoes. The simple form covers a smart system able to detect foreign items in the shoe soles and heels in less than two seconds. Characteristics of these foreign items do not matter: the detector does not define the material and risk. The device just notifies about a foreign item located in the shoes. The developers demonstrated their device during tests carried out at Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo airports: a passenger just steps on the platform and the red or green indicator lights up.
«The shoe soles are usually made of rubber or plastic. In other words, dielectric materials – electric charges do not flow through such materials, – CEO of ISS Company, Sergey Karabashev, explained. – If there is a hole in the shoe sole the properties will change, even if this hole is filled with some other material. Our device detects the presence of such non-uniformity giving the security services a reason to continue the inspection».
Today an introscope is used to carry out more thorough inspection. 100% of departing passengers’ shoes is inspected using these black large boxes. Alternatively a passenger may go through an X-ray cabin. However, mass production of this equipment has not been started yet: although the radiation dose received from such X-ray cabin is lower than the one received during flight, society is against use of such devices at the airports. Metal detectors put into service before the introscopes are unable to detect foreign items made of non-metallic materials, for instance, plastic explosives. The innovation introduced by ISS is unique in terms of end-user performance.
The current prototypes are the fourth upgraded and modified generation of Ratioplastina, developed under the leadership of Korzhenevski. Final stage is ahead – adjustments and tests. The scientists must achieve maximum sensitivity of sensors, mechanical stability and minimum number of false responses. In case of false alarm a passenger will still have to take off his shoes, but the false-negative result is really dangerous. In order to complete such an important project the Skolkovo Foundation allocated 15 million rubles to its resident.