"The Mini-Nose ... detects the presence of constituent elements of explosive materials by collecting and analyzing trace molecular evidence from the explosive or its vicinity," Doron Shalom, vice president of business development at Scent Detection Technologies, wrote to United Press International in an e-mail message. Herzliya, Israel-based SDT unveiled the Mini-Nose in January.

"Trace detection is the ideal complement for X-ray scanners, CT systems and metal detectors, and closes security loopholes by detecting microscopic particles that remain on clothing, luggage, ID cards, and more, after explosives are handled," Shalom told UPI.

According to the company, the "sniffer" technology digitally recreates the mammalian olfactory process used to detect a wide range of substances accurately and quickly. "It's based on a technology called High-Frequency Quartz Crystal Microbalance (HF-QCM)," the online publication Israel21c noted.

Shalom said that while SDT's competitors in the explosives-detection market use a radioactive substance to detect the explosive traces, the Mini-Nose does not: "The sensors are capable of detecting trace amounts of material in gaseous and liquid phase and are capable of independent remote operation without any human interfering. In addition, our technology is 'green' since we do not use any radioactive source to ionize the molecule" in the detection process, Shalom said.

Besides its airport application, Shalom said the company envisions the Mini-Nose at "ports, government buildings, shopping malls, high-threat facilities (such as nuclear plants, chemical plants and military bases), embassies and football and sports stadiums."

In addition to more traditional, nitrate-based explosives such as TNT and nitroglycerin, airport screeners now have to contend with what the industry calls "improvised" explosives -- bombs that can be fashioned from easily accessible household goods and that can go undetected by the usual test methods.

Mini-Nose "detects peroxide and nitrate based explosives such as TATP (triacetone triperoxide) and urea nitrate," Shalom said -- the latter being a favorite of suicide bombers.

The airport-security market has been going high-tech as terrorism threats increase. Last year Business Week featured some of the technologies that have been developed since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The publication quoted Jack Riley, a homeland security expert with the RAND Corp., as saying that "explosive detection will be among the greatest challenges facing (the United States Transportation Security Administration) in coming years."

Some of the other developments on the market include trace portal machines, sometimes called puffers, which look like metal detectors. "When a passenger stands on the threshold, the machine fires brief jets of air at him and then tests for traces of explosives. The technology can also be used to detect other substances like narcotics," the report noted.

Other airports have started to employ backscatter X-rays. Though these quickly and easily detect banned objects, they also penetrate clothing, raising serious privacy issues.

Trace detectors like the puffers also raised questions among some critics: "Some are concerned that false-positive results could cause major delays in security lines, especially if they were a primary security method," the Business Week report said.

The publication quoted airline industry analysis and consulting firm president Bob Mann, of R.W. Mann, as saying: "If I fertilized my lawn and went to the airport with the same shoes on, I'd spend the rest of the day there."

As for the Mini-Nose, Shalom emphasized that the units are relatively low-cost and easy to use: "The price is in the range of (about) $25,000 and customers usually buy one to two units (per) checkpoint."

"An airport buys quantities of 20 to 50 units, while border control or the military could (need as many as) 100 units."

Currently, the company's sales are still in the beginning stages: "Sales are around the hundreds-of-units mark," Shalom said, adding, "We are targeting to reach the highest possible quantities in the next two years."

In the industry, the company is already garnering some acclaim: In late August, industry newsletter Instrument Business Outlook gave the Mini-Nose 1000 Series its Bronze Award in the field of Portable Analytical Instrument Industrial Design, according to an SDT company statement released at the time.

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