R3 Technologies, a company specializing in radar detection systems, recently announced that its CBD-1000 concealed bomb detecting device is close to commercialization.
“The suicide bomber can walk into a crowded place unnoticed and inflict a horrifying amount of death and destruction,” Robby Roberson, founder of R3 Technologies, said. “It’s very hard to stop. There was no technology to deal with it.”
After a delayed start, R3 Technologies decided that it needed more technical help and turned to the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) program, which pairs entrepreneurs with scientists and engineers at Sandia and the Los Alamos National Laboratories.
The CBD-1000 uses X-brand radar to detect metallic and non-metallic explosives. R3 said that the device can detect ball bearings, glass, nails, ceramics, rocks and other materials frequently used as shrapnel in suicide vests.
The device is the size of a cereal box and weighs approximately 13 pounds. According to R3, operators of the device can be trained in 30 minutes. The scan itself takes approximately 1.3 seconds from nine feet away. The proprietary software analyzes both horizontal and vertical polarized signals to determine the presence of a potential threat.
Roberson said the device will cost approximately $50,000 and that several hundred units have been produced.