Turkey: Bomb device 'can spot threat from 30 meters'

By Tuncay Kayaoglu

ISTANBUL

A U.K.-based company unveiled a device in Istanbul on Wednesday which claims to be able to detect would-be suicide bombers and other threats from 30 meters.

In the wake of terrorist attacks which have rocked Turkey, a domestic firm called Nano System introduced the MiRTLE detector produced by Britain’s Radio Physics.

Bulent Perut, vice-president of Nano System, said: “[Terrorists] have tried to reach their aims through creating terror and fear which has damaged the country’s economy, that prevented people from going to crowded places.”

Perut said Nano System has agreed with Radio Physics to import MiRTLE to Turkey, adding that the two companies are aiming to further develop the detector and export it to other countries.

Creators say the device uses ultra wide band millimeter wave radio to screen people and is able to tell the difference between innocent items, like keys or cellphones, and handguns or explosive belts.

The system – which backers say has already been tested and approved by the authorities in the U.S. and the U.K. – can integrate into established CCTV networks and is portable. Hand-held models weigh less than three kilograms.

Carl Cagliarini, Radio Physics’ vice-president Global Business, said the device has been in development for years:

“It sends very low radio waves to any particular person and analyses what people are carrying… There is an intelligence system inside the device. If it detects, we get alerts.”

Cagliarini said that the device can analyze two or three people per second but said the company was aiming to increase that number to five or six.

At present, it sells for $20,000 and security officials would need several units to analyze large areas, like a stadium.

Turkey has been scene of a series of suicide bomb attacks from both Daesh and PKK terrorist organizations this year.