Faux Fido

As 500,000 people shuffled in and out of the National Mall gates in Washington, D.C., on July 4, National Park Police officers were testing a new method of screening for explosives — one that doesn’t bark.

The Fido XT Explosives Detector, manufactured by ICx Nomadics, Stillwater, Okla., is a portable, ultra-sensitive detection device that can pick up explosive vapors and particles at levels as low as a few femtograms or a few quadrillionths of a gram. John Sikes, ICx Nomadics deputy manager for National Security and Homeland Defense, says the device’s sensitivity closely rivals that of a bomb-sniffing dog. Sikes believes law enforcement and military officials could maximize the efficiency and accuracy of explosive screening by combining the Fido device with sniffing canines. “We do not want to say in any way, shape or form that we are better than dogs,” Sikes says. “Dogs are much faster and more efficient than anything else out there, but their side-by-side operations with Fido produced uncanny results.”

The National Park Police used four of the 2.7-lb. Fido XT devices as secondary-screening methods during the National Mall Independence Day celebration. Attendees entered the celebration grounds through eight guarded security portals. After performing baggage and visual checks, officers screened suspicious persons and randomly chosen attendees with the device.

Sgt. Louis Torche of the U.S. Park Police tested Fido’s effectiveness during the event. “This device actually detects any kind of TNT and any kind of explosive device, whether it was recently fired off or if somebody had the opportunity to work with it currently,” he said. “It can pick up residue off their hands.” Among his findings, Torche received a “hit” on a weapon that was last fired 10 years ago.

Sikes says that while training a professional to use Fido XT is relatively easy, the real challenge lies in “getting the person to think like a dog. We’re talking about picking up the stuff you can’t see. When you enter in wind and different environmental conditions, using the device to screen does take some intelligence,” he says.

The Fido device functions in two modes: the vapor phase and particle phase. When screening in the vapor phase, for example, users can run the device along the seam of a backpack, and it will pick up the scent of explosives immediately. If an object is screened in the particle phase, the device is swiped along the surface, attempting to pick up any contamination from an explosive inside. The device is suitable for handheld, bench-top and robot-mounted applications and displays screening results in bar-graph format on an LCD screen with an optional audio signal.

Sikes says using Fido XT may generally be more economical than bomb-sniffing canines because continuous training is not involved. “However, we don’t think we can put the dogs out of business. We want to function as more of a complement to them,” he says. “We can just be one more tool, giving off just a little bit more information.”

Fido XT is currently used as a screening method for visitors to the Statue of Liberty and is being tested for use at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. The device is also being evaluated for military applications including checkpoint, cargo and vehicle screenings, as well as IED detection and demining.

Each Fido XT unit costs $21,000.