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Chemical Detection System is One Cool Kit
 
by Celene Adams

It looks like the kind of sleek and deadly device an international spy might deploy on furtive missions to secure enemy secrets. 
Instead, the black briefcase, containing a laptop computer, spectrometer, laser, and fiber optic probe, is a unique type of chemical detection system. 
Designed by Rio Rancho's Senspex Inc., the "Ram-On Chemical Identification System," as it’s called, is used to detect and identify explosives and illicit drugs. 
"It's a non-contact technology that does not manipulate substances, is able to detect substances through glass and plastic, provides real-time results, can identify mixed compounds, and is portable -- all characteristics that differentiate it from existing detection systems," says Janelle Anthone, vice-president of the company. 
"Ram-On is a technique that's been around since 1927," Anthone says. "But the old style of Ram-0n took up this entire room. And ... because lasers are reducing in size and because spectrometers are smaller, [we] could package a Ram-On system into a suitcase-type thing. It has a lot of advantages over your conventional system." 
Senspex began work on proving the theory that its, at that time, hypothetical product would work after receiving a Small Business Innovative Research Grant of $100,000 from the federal government in 2002. 
"The problem was detection at a distance. So we proved it could be done," Anthone says. 
Encouraged by their findings, Anthone's husband and president of the firm, Miguel Moreno, then applied for additional funding to support research and development of an actual product. 
But, due to the war in Iraq, Anthone says, funding was not forthcoming. 
The couple then had to think of another plan. 
"We said, 'what we need is a product that's already finished so we can support our product,' " she says. 
Wanting to sell high-end products to reap large returns, they turned to manufacturers of thermal imagers -- powerful cameras that can detect human presence from up to 18 kilometers away. 
The cameras, which range in price from $13,000 to $130,000, are used by military training facilities and border control points to observe troop activity or cross-border traffic and by private industry to maintain security. 
Senspex became a dealer for the cameras, also offering complete system installation services. 
"We can offer additional services that the manufacturer can't offer -- faster turnaround time, service and integration needs. We install cameras; we can do the entire system, [which] could include not only just mounting the camera ... but [interconnecting several cameras]," Anthone says. 
Their first year as dealers, the company sold only $30,000 in cameras. But by 2004, that figure rose to $2 million -- enough to finance research and development of its Ram-On system. "This year we're projecting $4 million," Anthone adds. 
"Ram-On originally started as a lab instrument to just analyze substances. But we have a niche area. We're focusing on explosives and illicit drugs," she says. 
The system works by focusing a laser light on an unknown substance through a patented fiber optic probe. 
At the focal point, the laser radiation is strong enough to excite molecules of the substance and force them to "backscatter" a wave pattern. 
The wave pattern has a unique spectrum, which completely corresponds to the internal structure of the molecule. 
The backscattered signal is then collected through the same probe and goes to the spectrometer/data processing system, which detects and identifies the unknown substance and gives a "fingerprint" of the material. 
"Every substance on this earth has a different wave pattern," Anthone says. 
Unlike existing chemical detection systems, the probe doesn't touch the substance. 
That's important because contact can alter a substance, rendering it less credible in, for example, a court of law. 
Senspex doesn't design the laser or the spectrometer that comes with the system but, rather, the software the system uses. Currently, Anthone says, it isn't possible to buy software over the counter to make the system work, so "that's a big issue: 'How do you make this piece of equipment user friendly?'" 
The only software available, she continues, is highly technical software used in laboratories. It requires numerous adjustments by a skilled practitioner. 
Senspex custom designs the software according to customer needs. 
Some clients, for example, require only "pass/fail" capacity -- a system that detects an explosive or an illicit drug and then sounds an alarm. Others need to know exactly what a substance is, Anthone says. 
For instance, a law enforcement team needs accurate identification in order to be able to incarcerate a suspected drug manufacturer. 
"The problem right now ... is, they go in for the bust, and then they gather all these substances, but they can't verify what they are until they send them to a crime lab, Anthone says. "It takes two weeks to get the results. In the meantime, they have to set the bond very low because they don't really know what they have. If they had some evidence, they could set the bonds higher or not let the person out on the street." 
The company will soon collaborate with the Rio Rancho SWAT to take readings of illicit drugs in order to create a "library," or database, for them and for other clients in law enforcement. 
Once created, clients will be able to add to the library themselves by measuring a substance with the fiber optic probe, which will provide a reading and enter it into the database. 
Although it refers to detection of but a few millimeters of substance, this type of detection is called "bulk detection." However, there's another type of detection that Senspex is very interested in developing -- trace detection. 
Trace detection works inversely to bulk detection. Instead of having to take the probe to the substance, the probe attracts the substance. 
"There's certain metals on the probe that will attract vapors. We have a technique [in development] that we eventually want to patent, that would allow us to attract the vapors to a probe," Anthone says. 
Trace detection would be useful to detect substances in the air such as Anthrax, for example. 
"It's kind of a race for the moon. You know, whoever gets there first is gonna make mega bucks," Anthone says. 
After developing the trace system, she and Moreno would like to design a system that can detect substances through walls. 
While working on all this, the enterprising pair and their team of five scientists, have also developed other products -- the field deployment video test kit, among others. 
The kit will be used to make detecting camera problems in the field an easy task. 
There are many variables involved when you troubleshoot a camera on a pole or on a building, Anthone says. 
Consequently, the system will be able to test cameras' video, power, and communications systems at once rather than having to run several different tests. 
"Basically it's different instruments packaging into one unit -- one really cool kit," she says.