“Electronic nose” will help to fight terrorism

Mar 11, 2011 16:07 Moscow Time

Explosive. © Flickr.com/indi.ca/cc-by Paris metro will soon become a test site for the detector of explosives, jointly developed by Russian and Western specialists. The device has been designed in the framework of Russia-NATO program "Stand-off detection of explosives and suicide bombers" and got its name from the program’s abbreviation STANDEX. However the STANDEX instrument has already been nicknamed “electronic nose”. The presentation of the STANDEX instrument was held earlier this month in NATO’s headquarters in Brussels. The countries, which took part in its design, namely Russia, France, the US, Germany and the Netherlands will hold the copyright for the instrument.  Russia’s participation in this project is quite logical. Our country has a unique experience of building robots cable of functioning in emergency situations. It should be noted that the STANDEX project is being carried out in the framework of Russia-NATO strategic cooperation, the parties declared at the summit in Lisbon last November. The strategic cooperation between Russia and NATO in particular implies joint development of technologies, which will help to fight international terrorism. In an interview with the “Voice of Russia” Boris Makarenko, head of the social political programs of the Institute of modern development told us about the political meaning of this technical cooperation. Joint development of new technologies which helps us fight terrorism is very useful not only technically but also from the political point of view as it helps to change the climate in Russia-NATO relations. The Lisbon summit marked the beginning of this process. The “electronic nose” enables security services not only to detect the presence of an explosive device in the crowd but also to detect the location of its carrier. If tests are successful mass production of the device will be launched. According to the developers the production will be underway by the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. We hear from Alexei Rozuvan, the member of the Security Committee of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament.  With such devices we will be able to detect a person in the crowd even with a small amount of explosive substance. This is very convenient because we won’t have to check everyone and will be able to avoid long lines. The device will check the entire crowd and spot the suspicious objects which require proper examination. According to Russia’s envoy in NATO Dmitry Rogozin, the joint development of the STANDEX detector is an example of cooperation in fighting terrorism which opens the way to the real strategic partnership of Russia and NATO.