For having a simple name, Delta R Detection stands for something a bit more complex – differential reflection spectroscopy. Put more simply, it’s a process to identify certain materials by studying their interactions with light.
While this is not a new technique, Delta R Detection is putting it to a unique application: identifying trace amounts of explosive materials on parcels and people.
The company has its roots in the Materials Science lab at the University of Florida, around a technology developed by Dr. Rolf Hummel in the 1970s. Spectroscopy was used initially in computer science applications, where reflections of broadband light (visible and ultraviolet light, usually) were used to identify incredibly small amounts of alloy metals in computer chips.
According to Delta R Detection’s chief technology officer, Max Lemaitre, the company began through a bit of serendipity in science when a friend of Dr. Hummel’s received a grant for explosives detection and asked to test Hummel’s system, which successfully detected small amounts of TNT.
Since forming in 2008, the company has created three generations of prototypes after the initial test, each growing more sophisticated and accurate. By shining UV light on a surface and analyzing how it reflects, the system can instantly detect trace amounts of explosives. It can detect and identify particles as small as 10 microns across (for reference, a human hair is between 20-180 microns across). Since those particles are difficult to wash off, it is likely that a person who packaged an explosive would leave particles on the surface of a container housing explosives.
As the technology became more refined, Delta R Detection has also become more refined through a number of business plan competitions and exposure to the burgeoning industry of explosives detection and national security.
Lemaitre said that as a result of growing from a UF lab, the company has hit some barriers like few industry experts to help deal with government agencies. However, through the business competitions the company has entered, it shifted its focus from airport security to cargo and shipping security.
The technology would plug into any existing X-ray scanner, allowing baggage handlers or cargo companies to scan 100 percent of all luggage and cargo instantaneously and without any added procedures.
Since no technology exists to rapidly scan packages for explosives, the technology would help secure the billions of pieces of mail delivered in the United States each year. Although the company is seeking TSA certification – the gold standard for any Homeland Security technology – through the Cade Prize, the company has revised its business plan to focus on the $2.4 billion parcel and air cargo transportation industry.
Lemaitre said the Cade Prize has already helped the company, as it has revised and refocused its business plan for the competition. He hopes the Cade Prize will allow the company to expand its management team to include members of the advisory board which has helped guide the company through the defense and Homeland Security industries.
“We have people in the wings that, if we were to get funding, we could bring on board,” he said. “The Cade Prize would allow us to hire someone with 20 years of experience six months to a year earlier than we could without those funds, which will have a huge impact on the company.”
To find out more about the Cade Prize, visit CadeMuseum.org and keep an eye on the blog for more on the Cade Prize Sweet 16.
