F2-G: Advanced Imaging Technology for Whole Body Imaging

The Advanced Imaging Technology project began in the fall of 2010 with the goal of developing an improved multi-modality portal-based passenger screening system. Millimeter-wave (mm-wave), x-ray backscatter, infrared sensing, and terahertz sensing are being considered. The 5664 GHz mm-wave imaging system has produced several hardware and data processing innovations. These include: a novel Blade Beam reflector transmitting antenna that produces narrow target illumination to allow accurate stacked 2D reconstructions of the 3D surface; a carefully positioned multistatic array receiving antenna for artifact-free imaging; and a fast data processing technique, based on the Fast Multipole Method (FMM), that produces 2D SAR images from scattered field sample. The specially-built hardware platform facilitates reconfigurable sensor placement in order to develop the multistatic imaging radar system. In addition, a patent-pending algorithm has been developed for determining the dielectric constant of weak dielectric objects attached to the body. These improvements leads to faster, more accurate whole body imaging to improve the security screening process, with proved detection capabilities validated by means of measurements carried out with a first mmwave portal prototype.