Apparatus and method for detecting threats

A method for detecting threats which vaporizes a substance adhered to a wiping sheet, ionizes gas molecules of the substance, subjects the resulting ions to mass spectrometric analysis and detects whether a threatening component is contained or not in said adhered substance, the method comprising the steps of:

• calling standard mass chromatograms of a plurality of ions stored in a database to a memory;
• calculating measured mass chromatograms of a plurality of mass-to-charge ratios from mass spectra obtained from said adhered substance;
• selecting a measured mass chromatogram of a specific mass-to-charge ratio from among said plurality of measured mass chromatograms;
• and
• comparing said selected measured mass chromatogram with a standard mass chromatogram of said specific mass-to-charge ratio after a fitting process of said standard mass chromatogram.

A method for detecting threats which vaporizes a substance adhered to a wiping sheet, ionizes gas molecules of the substance, subjects the resulting ions to mass spectrometric analysis and detects whether a threatening component is contained or not in said adhered substance, the method comprising the steps of:

• calling a plurality of standard mass chromatograms stored in a database to a memory;
• calculating measured mass chromatograms of a plurality of mass-to-charge ratios from mass spectra obtained from said adhered substance;
• selecting a first measured mass chromatogram of a first mass-to-charge ratio and a second measured mass chromatogram of a second mass-to-charge ratio from among said plurality of measured mass chromatograms;
• selecting a first standard mass chromatogram of said first mass-to-charge ratio and a second standard mass chromatogram of said second mass-to-charge ratio from among said plurality of standard mass chromatograms;
• calculating a change over time of a measured signal ratio from a ratio of signal values at every measurement between said first measured mass chromatogram and said second measured mass chromatogram;
• calculating a change over time of a standard signal ratio from a ratio of signal values at every measurement between said first standard mass chromatogram and said second standard mass chromatogram;
• and
• making a comparison between the change over time of said measured signal ratio and the change over time of said standard signal ratio.

A method for detecting threats which vaporizes a substance adhered to a wiping sheet, ionizes gas molecules of the substance, subjects the resulting ions to mass spectrometric analysis and detects whether a threatening component is contained or not in said adhered substance, the method comprising a first evaluation step including the steps of:

• calling standard mass chromatograms of a plurality of ions stored in a database to a memory;
• calculating measured mass chromatograms of a plurality of mass-to-charge ratios from mass spectra obtained from said adhered substance;
• selecting a measured mass chromatogram of a specific mass-to-charge ratio from among said plurality of measured mass chromatograms, and
• comparing said selected measured mass chromatogram with a standard mass chromatogram of said specific mass-to-charge ratio after a fitting process of said standard mass chromatogram;
• a second evaluation step including the steps of:
• selecting a first measured mass chromatogram of a first mass-to-charge ratio and a second measured mass chromatogram of a second mass-to-charge ratio from among said plurality of measured mass chromatograms;
• selecting a first standard mass chromatogram of said first mass-to-charge ratio and a second standard mass chromatogram of said second mass-to-charge ratio from among said plurality of standard mass chromatograms;
• calculating a change over time of a measured signal ratio from a ratio of signal values at every measurement between said first measured mass chromatogram and said second measured mass chromatogram;
• calculating a change over time of a standard signal ratio from a ratio of signal values at every measurement between said first standard mass chromatogram and said second standard mass chromatogram;
• and
• making a comparison between the change over time of said measured signal ratio and the change over time of said standard signal ratio.