Method and apparatus to detect genuine or hoax contaminants
AssigneeThe Johns Hopkins University
InventorsMicah A. Carlson, Adam K. Arabian, Michael P. McLoughlin
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Abstract
A system (100) and method for detecting contaminants in parcels or other mailings (110). The contaminants, either genuine or hoax, are detected using the system (100) that includes a jogger (140) that shakes the parcels or other mailings (110). The system (100) further comprises a particle sampler (170) that analyzes the air flow created over the parcels (110) while the parcels are shaken. The system (100) and method preferable includes a parcel opening cutter (120) and a ram (148) for compressing during the shaking of the parcels. The air flow is sampled in order to detect whether or not a plurality of opened parcels is suspected of including contaminants such as biological threat material.
Claims3
A method for rapid screening of parcels to identify parcels likely to contain particles of biological or non-biological contaminants, comprising the steps of:
- opening each parcel;
- shaking the parcels;
- creating an air flow over the parcels as the parcels are shaken;
- sampling particles in the air flow to detect whether the parcels are likely to include contaminants;
- collecting particles in the air flow with a particulate concentrator equipped with a filter;
- and
- analyzing the filter periodically to provide a second-check of the accuracy of the sampling step;
- wherein the filter is provided with a unique identifier corresponding to a group of parcels found to be non-suspect during the sampling step thereby permitting the non-suspect group of parcels to be identified and re-screened if particles of biological or non-biological contaminants are detected during the analyzing the filter step.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.