Sandia National Laboratories recently won the 2016 Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology for their efforts in the development of the x-ray toolkit (XTK) image processing and analysis software.
The XTK was developed in the wake of the 2013 Boston bombing incident that killed three people and injured more than 250. Since its development, the device has had more than 20,000 users across the globe and was adopted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Hazardous Devices School.
“XTK is the standard in the field not only nationally, but internationally. It made the average bomb tech a better bomb tech,” Craig Greene, special agent and bomb technician at Albuquerque’s FBI office, said. “In the past 20 years, the bomb technician community has progressed from the Stone Age to the 21st century in terms of equipment and procedures, and XTK is a major part of that progression.”
The device carries the ability to optimize x-rays, identify critical device components, create three-dimensional visualization, stitch multiple images together to cover large objects and compress large images for transmission. Additionally, the device offers file management, measurement, markup, image-sharing tools, and the ability to create training scenarios and after-action reports. The Sandia team also patented the Grid-Am system that allows users to quickly and precisely disable the internal components of an IED with minimal damage to the surrounding property and infrastructure.
Sandia updates the software regularly with new features and versions designed for mobile platforms.
XTK is currently used by the Department of Justice, Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.