Canine Defensive Search Specialists Ltd
SIA-approved CDSS are leading providers of explosive and narcotic search dogs. They offer a wide range of services to the worlds of business and leisure and have dogs in 45 UK prisons.
Unlike most other search dog teams, CDSS have a Home Office license to hold real explosives and real drugs. They believe this is one of the main reasons for their continuing success.
Clients include the City of London police, and the company’s dogs are now being used on the vast crowds at the new Wembley stadium. Over an initial eight week course and with ongoing training, the dogs learn to use their excellent sense of smell to detect threats in a way that no man-made technology can offer.
Dogs Jake and Jack were at the show to support the company and their sister guarding operation Ministry. All of the handlers are ex-service personnel with extensive operational experience, and we were particularly impressed with their wide range of accreditations.
TX Immersive Limited (TXi)
TX Immersive Limited (TXi) are distributors of advanced digital video imaging technology with the aim to ‘change your perspective’. With this in mind, and alarmed by a man from the company walking through the show with eleven cameras high above his head, we chose to take a closer look.
Arranged according to ‘geodesic geometry’, Immersive video captures an almost completely spherical image from the user’s surroundings. The high-resolution 360 degrees view of surroundings is then seamlessly stitched together and can be explored, by mouse, on a screen. Alternatively a headset can be worn, allowing the user to explore the video in real time or from previous recordings.
The Immersive technology has a number of applications and can be used in crisis situations to gather intelligence, for urban planning, oil and gas resource management, emergency response and even commercial media. Pictures captured by the IMC cameras can be relayed as a ‘world view’ on one screen, and lens by lens on another.
The products are being aimed at first responders, like the emergency services, the military and homeland security services. However, an innovative product like this is likely to be snapped up by a much wider range of clients as the technology evolves.
Protect: Fog Cannon
While smoke deployment systems are becoming more widespread, we were impressed by Protect’s economical use of the technology.
When triggered, cold fluid is sent through a heater to create a thick fog. Fog rather than smoke, ‘due to the smoking ban’ we are told.
Most other systems fire constantly and as a consequence, they run out quickly. Protect’s systems fire intermittently and can therefore create a dense, intruder-inhibiting fog for up to 28 minutes.
Keen to get a shot of the device in action, our photographer Martin was sent into the test room with Donald Hewlett, Head of Active Security Products at the firm. The designers assure that the fog will not damage expensive cameras, or indeed electrical appliances and furnishings in offices.
Manufactured by a Danish company, the cannons have various uses. One model, as we reported recently, can be operated remotely by a simple mobile phone.
Opgal Optronic Industries Ltd
Israel-based Opgal are suppliers of highly-sensitive thermal imaging systems for commercial, industrial, security and military applications. With 25 years of experience in the thermal imaging business, it is no surprise that they have amassed a wide client base.
The products they are offering at the show fall into two technologies: cooled and uncooled. The cooled thermal imaging cameras are much more sensitive, and this technology has been around for about 30 years in its various forms.
The sensors on these (more expensive) products are cooled down to around -200 degrees c to increase their sensitivity and this is generally the reserve of the military.
However, Opgal are taking uncooled, handheld technology to the market, attracting the emergency services and the aviation industry. Much less expensive, it can help fire services, for example, to find their way through dangerous areas in the dark.
Currently, 500 commercial aircraft around the world are using Oplag’s FAA-approved systems to complete landing and take-off manoeuvres when visibility is bad.
Adams Electronics:
Adams electronics are a small company indeed. However, like so many of the small operations at this year’s show, they are using their innovative technologies to tap global markets.
The company specialise in high-sensitivity metal detection equipment, and the quality of their products has attracted the attention of the commercial world and the media alike. In 2002, the company’s detector gloves featured on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World. The comfortable gloves vibrate silently when they detect metal, and at the same time they provide protection from knife wounds and hypodermic needles, making them ideal for police and security staff.
Just two weeks ago, Robert E. Adams, the company’s CEO, chairman and product designer secured a lucrative contract with BAA to supply the metal detection systems for all British airports. In the face of fierce competition from much bigger operations, Adams says he was pleasantly surprised with the decision.
Other clients making use of the super-sensitive range include the Merseyside and Strathclyde police forces. At one demonstration today, an Adams product detected a tiny SIM card through a customer’s suit. Not much metal to detect there, then.
