by Zoe Li
Can the boarding gate "sniff" out explosives as efficiently as a good ol' fashioned dog?
Japanese technology firm Hitachi unveiled last week a prototype of a high-speed bomb-detection boarding gate for airports.
Working with The Nippon Signal Co. and the University of Yamanashi, engineers created a gate that uses high sensitivity mass spectrometry technology to detect the presence of explosive compounds.
Basically, as the passenger swipes their boarding pass on the gate, a short puff of air is blown on their hand to lift and collect minute particles that are then analyzed for explosive compounds.
A similar technology was introduced to U.S. airports in 2005 in the form of puffer machines. However, those machines were pulled after a trial period due to technical difficulties. The puffer machines can process 180 people per hour.
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