While aviation security gets all the publicity, inspection of large cargo and vehicles for potential contraband, threats and smuggled good is arguably just as important. Whether it is opioids, weapons, counterfeit goods – or just people seeking to avoid paying customs duties, CBP is expected to stop bad stuff from crossing the border – without bringing legitimate trade and travel to a standstill.
And for years now, the large cargo inspection technology market has been dominated by four large players — OSI Systems, Inc. (which now owns Rapiscan Systems, AS&E, and S2 Global); Leidos; UK-based Smiths Detection; and Chinese manufacturer Nuctech – with two smaller companies, VMI (from Brazil) and Adani Systems (from Belarus) competing regionally.
Enter SeeThru AI.
Based in Massachusetts and founded in 2021 by former AS&E/Rapiscan engineers and executives, SeeThru AI wants to break what it calls the “innovation stalemate” within cargo screening and inspection. “Twenty years after the first large cargo inspection systems were deployed, the underlying x-ray technology has seen limited innovation and screening operations continue to rely heavily on human operators to perform manual image analysis,” SeeThru AI Marshall Tsien, International Sales, explained in an interview with Homeland Security Technology. “Our technology delivers next level imaging performance at a fraction of the x-ray dose to scanned vehicles and people compared to other scanning systems. We leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to streamline screening operations with automated threat detection algorithms designed to address our clients’ needs. And we use an open software architecture to facilitate integration with third party networks, peripherals, and detection algorithms.”
Will they succeed?
It is early days, but SeeThru has a deep understanding of the pain points that users of cargo inspection technology experience. “Currently, many cargo inspection systems “lock” their customers in with closed platforms,” commented Marshall Tsien. “You can only use a certain type of vehicle chassis to transport the imaging system, and there is no way to easily integrate a third-party threat detection algorithm or remote maintenance software. All those things trap the customer and create hidden costs. We want to change that paradigm, and help customers take advantage of the new technologies that are now available to them.”
The company’s vision is coming to reality. It has launched a new cargo inspection portal, the xgate. Designed for high throughput drive-through occupied vehicle inspection (think cars entering the US at the Southern Border), the company says that the combination of its new low dose, Backscatter and multi-energy x-ray imaging platform and AI software will dramatically allow for safe inspection of vehicles, while avoiding the delays and bottlenecks other inspection technologies have created.
SeeThru AI is working with customers worldwide. To learn more, contact Marshall Tsien (marshall.tsien@seethru.ai) or visit seethru.ai.
