DETROIT, Michigan - ThruVision Ltd. and First Response Solutions Inc., in cooperation with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, announced today the deployment of ThruVision’s passive people screening security system at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, which houses the county’s criminal court division.  Officials say that necessary security screening will become both more effective and less intimidating with the introduction of ThruVision’s T4400 system, a passive terahertz imaging technology for the screening of people entering security-sensitive facilities such as airports, courthouses and stadiums.

“The installation is the start of a trial by the Sheriff’s Office,” said Sheriff Warren C.  Evans.  “The Sheriff’s Office will test and evaluate the increased capability that ThruVision’s T4400 terahertz imager can provide in the screening of visitors to the facility.   We are honored to have been selected to be the first law enforcement agency in the United States of America to test this technology, and are grateful to ThruVision and First Response Solutions Inc. for providing us this equipment on a trial basis to help us better protect employees and visitors at our criminal court building,” Sheriff Evans said.

Installed as either a stand-alone solution, or in combination with conventional metal detector and package screening equipment, the T4400 imager allows the operator to maintain the efficient throughput of people while providing the ability to quickly and effectively identify the presence of harmful non-metal objects – such as liquid and plastic explosives and ceramic blades – that conventional systems would not detect, while seeing metallic objects as well.The ThruVision system captures images of objects concealed under the clothing of individuals being screened, but it does so without revealing anatomical detail, protecting the personal privacy of the individual.

Clive Beattie, CEO of ThruVision Ltd., said, “Unlike x-ray or some millimeter wave RADAR security imaging technology that is been evaluated at some airports and secured facilities, ThruVision’s technology is totally passive.  Images of concealed objects are formed by detecting the natural ‘terahertz waves’ emitted all the time by both people and objects, which makes the system absolutely safe for pregnant woman and people with pacemakers.”

Charles W. Newsome, president of First Response Solutions Inc., said, “ThruVision’s technology eventually may replace ‘pat down’ screening in many venues. The system is fast, and many people find manual pat downs unpleasant. This is the future of security screening.”  Mr. Newsome stressed the fact that the ThruVision technology does not deploy a ‘nudity camera’ and that the images are basically the outline of the person being screened with no details of the body being revealed.

How it works: Prior to passing through the metal detector, the person being screened will perform a 360 degree turn in-place.  The T4400, which is placed at a stand-off distance from the person, will passively scan the person.  Inside the Terahertz imager are very sensitive detectors that collect the so-called ‘terahertz waves’ that are naturally produced at all times by all objects and people.   These natural low energy waves are then processed by ThruVision’s proprietary Graphic User Interface Software, ThruViewer, for presentation to the screener on a laptop computer.   ThruVision technology provides images of concealed objects without violating the privacy of person who is being screened.   

Corporate Information: Established in 2004, ThruVision is a spinout company from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), a key UK Government laboratory near Oxford, UK. ThruVision’s terahertz imaging technology was originally developed by RAL and the European Space Agency (ESA) to find holes in the earth’s ozone layer from space.  Today, ThruVision is the world leader in providing commercial terahertz imaging products for security screening at airports, transportation centers, and many other public and private venues that require visitor or passenger screening.