09 Mar New sense-through-the-wall security technology

Iceni Labs will market the DUELIST Situational Awareness for Small Units solution to police, counter-terror units and SWAT team users worldwide as it looks to provide law enforcement and first responder operators with sense-through-the-wall security technology.

Based around Iceni Labs’ SafeScan ultra-wideband radar technology, the DUELIST solution was selected as winner of the National Security Innovation Network’s Situational Awareness in Dense Urban Environments Online Challenge in 2020. Originally designed for military units, the capability will now be expanded into the security and policing sector, where is will enable real-time situational awareness and decision making for terror response, building/room clearance and hostage rescue team operations.

DUELIST integrates data visualisation, sensor and user interface technologies into a software platform that can build an integrated visual representation of the dismounted battlespace for small unit manoeuvre elements. At its core, Iceni Labs’ SafeScan ‘sense-through-the-wall’ radar technology is fused with inertial measurement unit motion detection and occupancy mapping technologies to build a 3D volumetric local map of the users’ track and local environment.

Presented on a connected smartphone or tablet, the map shows the user – in real time – their surroundings, their location within it, the physical makeup of their surroundings, position of friendlies and threats, and provides the ability to detect and interpret target movement patterns to identify threats. Multiple individual tracker units worn by operators, animals or drones, can also be integrated to produce a more comprehensive map of the area, also in real time.

SafeScan, developed under UK Defence and Security Accelerator Rapid Impact contract funding, is a handheld sensor that uses ultra-wideband radar to detect static and moving individuals through the wall, providing operators with easily understood visuals that allows them to quickly react to developing situations. It can be used as a stand-alone solution, or integrated into the wider DUELIST system.

“We have seen an immensely positive response to SafeScan and DUELIST from multiple government users,” Alex Giles, Chief Commercial Officer, Iceni Labs, said. “When we look at what capabilities these technologies can provide, we see significant application within elite policing groups, counter-terror operators and SWAT teams, all of which would benefit greatly from the ability to understand what is happening on the other side of a closed door or wall. How many people are in that room and what are they doing? This is the kind of real-time actionable intelligence that we can get into the hands of these users with SafeScan and DUELIST.”

SafeScan is currently undergoing government-funded trials that will continue throughout 2021.