InstroTek Guard1™

Background

Recently there has been an increase in the number of stowaway smuggling cases. This can be one person hiding in a small compartment in a vehicle or large trailers and storage containers used to hide a substantial number of illegal aliens who are attempting to cross the border into the United States. Manually opening a container is labor intensive and time consuming.

Moreover, since the illegal aliens may be aware that the container in which they are hidden may be searched, they can conceal themselves to make a visual inspection even more difficult. Non-intrusive detection devices such as x-ray imaging can detect individuals contained within a trailer or vehicle however, these type of devices can be very expensive, costly to operate, and the radiation coming from x-ray machines may be harmful to the individuals who may be hidden within the trailer or container. InstroTek's Guard1 (Patent Pending) is a new product innovation that in less than 3 minutes uses emissions from individuals or groups of people as a tell tale sign of the presence of people in concealed containers.

All members of the animal world breathe in oxygen and exhale CO2 on a continuous basis. Humans also release other gases. These include volatile organic compounds (VOC's), hydrogen sulfide, chlorine, nitric oxide, and ammonia. In an open area it can be difficult to detect increases in these gases beyond that which is ordinarily present as background in an open area. However, in a closed container or trailer the presence of even a single individual over a short period of time can result in increase in human emissions, which may be detected by sampling the air within the trailer. Guard1 detects humans within a sealed container, trailer in a non-invasive way, which is not harmful to the individuals or cargo in less than 3 minutes.

Description of the Product

Humans breathe in oxygen and exhale CO2 on continuous basis. Tests have shown that an ordinary person at rest exhales about 300 ml of CO2 each minute. Guard1 continuously monitors VOCs from 0-1000 ppm and CO2 from 0-20,000 ppm along with other gases. The emission gas measurements are used in combination as a human indicator index for a closed container. The Guard1 is battery operated and is designed for 24 hour continuous operation with a built in diaphragm pump that is used for sampling human emissions. The data transfer, data storage, data interpretation and user interface software for the unit is designed for ease of use.

Guard1 is portable and lightweight and can be readily transported by an inspector. The pump and detection system is connected to a probe that is 2-3 ft long and a centimeter in diameter (1/4 inch).

Most containers have access points to the inside, which would allow the access to the inside of the container with the Guard1 probe. The pump will then be activated to vacuum gas from inside the container and pull it through the hollow probe into the gas detection analyzers. Guard1 is equipped with appropriate readout and software for indication of human presence in containers.

It has been found in practice that a typical truck trailer 48 feet in length, 8 1/2 feet wide by 13 1/2 feet tall will show an appreciable and measurable increase in CO2 when closed with a person inside in a period of no more than a few minutes. In operation, a one minute background level is taken and stored just outside of the area to be checked. This gives the unit a baseline. Once the background level is sampled, the probe is inserted into the enclosed area to be checked. The interior air is sampled for one minute an analyzed. The processor will then calculate the probability of one or more individuals being inside the enclosed area or trailer by comparing the results from the gas detectors for the air sample inside the trailer with the background air.