Word: ahura
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...foiled terror plot in Great Britain aimed to exploit vulnerabilities in airport security, but new technology may help patch those holes. In recent months, the Transportation Security Administration has begun testing a new tool for detecting such materials, security industry sources tell TIME. The device, Ahura's FirstDefender, is a handheld chemical identification system about the size of a hardcover book. The FBI, U.S. Customs and Immigration and the Department of Homeland Security have already begun using the gadget to detect and identify chemical hazards, but it hasn't yet been implemented in airports. The TSA recently deployed...
...waterproof and shockproof device has already been used by hazmat teams in New York and Washington and in military operations, and Ahura has plans to develop an even smaller, cell-phone-size implement. How does the technology work? Explosive liquids tend to have strong chemical signatures, which the device can read, even through bottles or other containers. The technique employed, called Raman spectroscopy, uses a laser for optical analysis. After shining a light on a substance, liquid or solid, the device analyzes the optical characteristics of the scattered light that reflects back. "You can read the substance...
...still happens in mail rooms and airports: a suspicious unidentified substance turns up, and activity freezes for hours until a haz-mat team can make a safety assessment. But Ahura Corp.'s FirstDefender--a handheld instrument that recognizes thousands of chemicals--can give cops and firefighters an immediate analysis of just about any substance...
FirstDefender uses lasers and a type of optical analysis known as Raman spectroscopy. "It shines a light on an object and looks at the scattered light coming back, which carries the optical signature of the material, whether it's a liquid or a solid," explains Ahura founder and president Daryoosh Vakhshoori. "You can read the substance as if it had a bar code, observing if the white powder you see is sugar, aspirin or something more dangerous...
...current form, FirstDefender is a portable, 4-lb. box that costs about $30,000, which means you won't find it in every cop car quite yet. But Ahura plans to slim the device to the size of a cell phone and reduce its cost with advances in technology to make it a more practical everyday tool for emergency responders...