Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) officials said an Austin, Texas-based start-up has secured funding designed to enhance security checkpoint operations.
S&T officials said the agency awarded $199,961.29 to Synthetik Applied Technologies to develop a proof-of-concept for an artificial intelligence (AI)-based object recognition capability for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
The work would involve using real-time voxel-wise instance segmentation to detect objects during property screening in airports, officials said. A voxel is a unit of measurement in a 3D image, and object segmentation is the problem of delineating each object of interest in an image. Voxel-wise instance segmentation uses AI to identify objects within a 3D image.
“Synthetik’s solution proposes an advancement to three-dimensional (3D) object recognition that could greatly enhance security checkpoint operations,” Melissa Oh, S&T’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) managing director, said. “We are excited to see Synthetik’s proof-of-concept—artificial intelligence has many applications to DHS use-cases that we have not yet fully explored.”
Companies participating in SVIP are eligible for up to $800,000 of non-dilutive funding to develop and adapt commercial technologies for homeland security use cases.
The funding allotment serves as the first award under the SVIP’s Other Transaction Solicitation Object Recognition and Adaptive Algorithms for Airport Passenger Property Screening.