Under vehicle inspection technology has gone a long way since its inception, from handheld mirrors to artificial intelligence-backed threat detection.
Scanning under vehicles has been a concern for security experts ever since road vehicles went mainstream. The methods of under vehicle inspection have changed and been improved upon over the years, but the idea has remained consistent: checking beneath road vehicles is a necessary security step when trying to accurately determine whether a vehicle is safe. Let’s take a look at how the need emerged, how the technology has developed, and where that leaves under vehicle inspection technology today.
Manual Inspection Systems
Originally, the most you could do was have security personnel take a quick peek beneath a vehicle and see if anything looks suspicious. The drawbacks of this are numerous, including that it requires a steep amount of knowledge on the personnel’s behalf, that it’s difficult to get a complete view of everything down there, and that it puts the security expert in a more dangerous situation. In a similar vein, many began to use handheld mirrors to get a better look beneath the body of a vehicle. This solution suffers from many of the same issues that any other manual inspection method does however.
Optical Systems
Optical under vehicle inspection systems go back further than many realize and the development of those systems has been a multi-decade endeavor. Even then, many of the original systems created still relied on a manual inspection element—while images would be captured and organized automatically, it was still up to security personnel to make any sense of those photos. Without a full understanding of what they’re looking for—which certainly isn’t always apparent—this doesn’t take full advantage of the potential for under vehicle inspection technology.
Introducing Intelligence
Improvements in artificial intelligence, imaging hardware, and increased system integration abilities has completely changed the under vehicle inspection mindset. Take Gatekeeper’s Intelligent Vehicle Undercarriage Scanner—the IVUS. The IVUS is capable of offering immediate threat detection and can compare a captured image to a reference image in nearly an instant.
Improving Security With Gatekeeper
Gatekeeper Security’s suite of intelligent optical technologies provides security personnel with the tool to detect today’s threats. Our systems help those in the energy, transportation, commercial, and government sectors protect their people and their valuables by detecting threats in time to take action. From automatic under vehicle inspection systems, automatic license plate reader systems, to on the move automatic vehicle occupant identifier, we offer full 360-degree vehicle scanning to ensure any threat is found. Throughout 30 countries around the globe, Gatekeeper Security’s technology is trusted to help protect critical infrastructure. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn for updates about our technology and company.