Monday, July 8, 2002

Security

Passing inspection

By Matthew French

A Cambridge company is doing what it can to help in the effort of making the homeland more secure, but it is doing it based on a technology more than 20 years old.

Computer Recognition Systems Inc. (CRS) had its beginnings in 1979 London, when bombings by the Irish Republican Army and an increase in car thefts had the police and the city on edge. The company developed a license plate reader that could track the location of a car as it passed certain checkpoints. Police could then determine if the car had been stolen or appeared on any of their "black lists," said Salvatore D'Agostino, chief executive of CRS.

"Back then, it was a van full of equipment and running on a Digital (Equipment Corp.) machine - it was huge," D'Agostino said. "Now it's all software that can run on any PC."

What started out as a relatively simple license plate reader has been converted into a powerful security tool that is being used at the U.S. Capitol complex in Washington D.C., a traffic monitoring station in western Massachusetts, and a truck monitoring tool at a weigh station in Kentucky.

The company has more than 1,000 readers in 30 countries and is involved in the EZ Pass system used in New York and other states, similar to the Fast Lane used in Massachusetts.

The company's most recent project involves securing the Capitol complex. What had originally been a much smaller project grew enormously after Sept. 11.

"We were in this game long before, but Sept. 11 will certainly lead to a spike in business," D'Agostino said. "We had originally slated to provide security devices for only a few of the areas of the Capitol complex, but now we are basically setting up a perimeter around the entire thing."

CRS has tied its license plate reader to a series of databases and recognition applications, giving U.S. Capitol Police a new tool in identifying those trying to get vehicles into the complex. The company's contract calls for identifying every vehicle that is authorized to park inside the complex, which includes the U.S. Congress, U.S. Supreme Court and the Library of Congress.

"When a person drives up to the Capitol, a transponder that's been issued to them will immediately send a signal to the tablet computer the officers there use and tell them all about the car and its occupant," D'Agostino said. "The car is captured on film and compared to the car of record. Not only will a picture of the car and authorized driver appear, but it will give the weight of each axle to prevent an Oklahoma City or the first World Trade Center bombing scenario."

The system will then give an audio cue to the officer, indicating whether the car is authorized to enter, and a special audio cue to indicate a VIP. The first systems are already in place and the rollout to completely encompass the Capitol complex is expected to take a few years, D'Agostino said.

If the car is overweight, the wrong driver behind the wheel, or the license plates changed, the guard will automatically be notified by the system. The system also takes pictures of the undercarriage of the car, so if a guard performs a check there, anything out of the ordinary will be immediately noted.

The system is called AVISTA, which stands for Automated Vehicle Identification Screening Technology Application, and is a play on the Spanish phrase "ha vista," meaning "It has been seen."

"This is really designed to maintain security while speeding up the process," D'Agostino said. "If you have potentially 10,000 cars you have to check and it takes even 15 seconds for each car, that last guy in line is going to turn around and head home as soon as they get through security. With this, a guard gets notification instantly and can wave the cars though very quickly."

The system is not designed to recognize cars that might be "flagged" by the police or FBI, but rather expedite the process of allowing "known" cars and people into their authorized areas.

The company has its fingers in many pies besides security, although that particular field has recently created a lot of buzz.

One of the more mainstream applications is a study in traffic patterns and commute times that is taking place at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Several cameras set up near the intersection of Route 9 and Route 91 track a vehicle's license plate as it passes various locations, giving an accurate estimate of the drive time through a specific region.

D'Agostino said he would certainly consider selling the system to law enforcement officers, who would be able to determine whether a motorist is speeding by the time it would take to get from one point to another.

"This is a system that's already in place in Europe - they were the early adopters - and it's just coming into its own in the United States," he said. "I can see this being used here, but probably a few years down the road."

D'Agostino said if the security projects for CRS keep springing up, he would consider the possibility of spinning the security applications out into a separate company.