Progress report on Safe VISITOR: approaching a practical instrument for terahertz security screening

Erik Heinz; Detlef Born; Gabriel Zieger; Torsten May; Torsten Krause; Andre Krüger; Marco Schulz; Solveig Anders; Viatcheslav Zakosarenko; Hans-Georg Meyer; Michael Starkloff; Mario Rößler; Guenter Thorwirth; Ulf Krause

doi:10.1117/12.852558

27 April 2010 Progress report on Safe VISITOR: approaching a practical instrument for terahertz security screening

Erik Heinz, Detlef Born, Gabriel Zieger, Torsten May, Torsten Krause, Andre Krüger, Marco Schulz, Solveig Anders, Viatcheslav Zakosarenko, Hans-Georg Meyer, Michael Starkloff, Mario Rößler, Guenter Thorwirth, Ulf Krause

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7670, Passive Millimeter-Wave Imaging Technology XIII; 767005 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.852558
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2010, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

As reported before,^{1, 2} Safe VISITOR (Safe VISible, Infrared and Terahertz Object recognition) is a German project to build a passive security camera which visualizes sub-mm wavelengths using cooled bolometer arrays. This camera could be used for a variety of application scenarios, such as airport screenings or to protect military camps. In all cases, a practical instrument requires ease of use, in particular a flexible installation and a straightforward usage by the security personnel. Here we present a new generation of Safe VISITOR designed to meet these requirements. The main condition for an effective operation is a high frame rate of the imager. Safe VISITOR is able to record videos up to 10 Hz, using a small array of superconducting bolometers in combination with an opto-mechanical scanner. The required cooling of the detector array is provided by a commercial pulse tube cooler with a second, self-contained cooling stage. The cooling cycle is completely automated; after 10 hours of initial cooling from room temperature the system can operate quasi-continuously. For imaging, a 50 cm diameter optics is used which is able to provide an object resolution of approximately 1.5 cm at 8 m distance. For a flexible installation, the object distance can be tuned manually between 7 and 10 m. Additionally, video streams from two commercial cameras are fused with the sub-mm stream: a CCD for visible light and a microbolometer for far infrared (14 μm). This combines the ability of identification of the person under test with the unprecedented temperature resolution at infrared and the almost perfect transmission at sub-mm. To assist a security official, all image data are displayed in various graphic renditions by a unified system software.

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Erik Heinz, Detlef Born, Gabriel Zieger, Torsten May, Torsten Krause, Andre Krüger, Marco Schulz, Solveig Anders, Viatcheslav Zakosarenko, Hans-Georg Meyer, Michael Starkloff, Mario Rößler, Guenter Thorwirth, and Ulf Krause "Progress report on Safe VISITOR: approaching a practical instrument for terahertz security screening", Proc. SPIE 7670, Passive Millimeter-Wave Imaging Technology XIII, 767005 (27 April 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.852558

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