Initiative for Explosives Detection
Standoff Detection and Imaging
Standoff detection takes place at greater distances from people and vital assets to reduce the potential for severe damage. Some standoff methods focus on chemical identification to detect explosives, breakdown products, and/or other precursors. Other standoff methods—including imaging, which relies on video and other image-related data to screen threats—are based on the detection of suspicious packages, wire, fragmentation materials, and other physical attributes of IEDs.
Key challenges in standoff detection include extending the distance at which effective screening can be conducted, reducing the impacts of various interferences and backgrounds (e.g., atmospheric and environmental), and effective screening of multiple in-motion potential threats. Key imaging challenges include developing new mathematical methods and algorithms that sift through massive quantities of data to enable classification and identification of new and emerging threat signatures.