New scanner allows liquids back into aircraft cabin baggage

The INSIGHT100 scanner exceeded the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) standard for use at airports with an almost perfect detection capability and negligible false alarm rate in unopened containers, ensuring maximum safety for the travelling public with the minimum delays. What makes INSIGHT100 special is the capability of identifying explosives unambiguously inside opaque bottles such as coloured plastic shampoo containers, or green glass wine bottles. Other systems do not precisely identify the threat reliably and may lead to large numbers of false alarms or to missing genuine threats.  The system is currently in trials at several major European airports.

The INSIGHT100 system uses a proprietary technology called Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS), which was pioneered at the Science & Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Central Laser Facility at its Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, and led to the creation of Cobalt Light Systems as a spin out of STFC. 

Dr. Paul Loeffen, Chief Executive Officer of Cobalt Light Systems, said: “We have worked incredibly hard over the last couple of years to refine the SORS technology and bring the INSIGHT100 to market. It is a great achievement to have exceeded the European standards at this stage so that we are in a prime position to supply this unique bottle screener to European airports”. The development of the INSIGHT100 was funded under the Innovative Research Call in Explosives and Weapons Detection (2010) initiative, a cross-government programme sponsored by a number of government departments and agencies under the CONTEST strategy.

Prof. Pavel Matousek, at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and inventor of the SORS technique said: "Since STFC made the breakthrough in discovering SORS a few years ago, we have worked closely with the team at Cobalt Light Systems to develop and refine this technology. It is particularly exciting to see how this particular scientific development could now go on to make a real difference to the safety and wellbeing of our society.”

The restriction on liquids was introduced following a failed al-Qaeda bomb plot in August 2006 to bring down several airliners departing London for North America – the terrorists aimed to use liquid explosives carried onto aircraft in bottles. Recently, the European Commission agreed to relax the limit on liquids by introducing new screening measures from April 2013. In just over a year from now, passengers will again be allowed to carry on that expensive bottle of champagne as a gift for friends, provided the bottle is screened.

Provided by Science and Technology Facilities Council