Robots to track bombs

By Jennifer Tan

SINGAPORE - Shaped like a flat-screen TV with wheels, a wireless miniature robot searches the undersides of vehicles for bombs or weapons in seconds, allowing customs checkpoints, airports and embassies to boost security.

The device, costing about S$60,000 ($34,740), was unveiled by a Singapore firm, TeleRadio Engineering Pte Ltd, at a two-day security conference in the city state on Thursday.

"This robot can detect at a glance any dangerous items like explosives on the underside of the vehicle, which is much quicker than the normal method of using mirrors to do a manual search," Robyn Tay, Teleradio's managing director told Reuters.

The device transmits pictures to an operator's computer.

Tay spent seven years with the Singapore Police Force's Technology Department while research and development director Ho Min Hui was a software engineer with Creative Technology Ltd, the world's largest maker of computer sound cards.

Most of Asia has been on heightened security alert since the October 2002 bomb blasts on Indonesia's resort island of Bali, and after the September 11, 2001, hijack attacks on the United States.

The security conference and exhibition attracted 200 security firms from 23 countries, and showcased a variety of surveillance gadgets ranging from iris scanning equipment to x-ray machines, spy cameras, shock-wire fencing and fire-proof bodysuits.

Another gizmo on display was the Hand Vascular Pattern Recognition System, a security device that controls access to buildings and key facilities by scanning the veins and capillaries on the back of a user's hand.

"This is more secure than fingerprint technology. Fingerprint scanning is not reliable in the case of scars or injuries, and about 80 percent of fingerprints can be reproduced," said Kihwa Moon, managing director of VeID Pte Ltd, which brought the South Korean-designed product to Singapore.

The vascular scanning device costs about US$2,500, compared with US$700 to US$2,000 for fingerprint systems.

Singapore Police Commissioner Khoo Boon Hui urged governments and companies to invest in security measures, as terror attacks remain a threat.

"Like SARS, the terrorist threat is here to stay... We need to maintain our vigilance. No country is immune," he added.

© Reuters