All about Dexter, the NATO-Enea project against terrorism
Dexter is born, a project funded by NATO and coordinated by Enea that aims to strengthen people's safety and prevent attacks with weapons or explosives in crowded places. Enrico Ferrone's article
9/11 will be remembered by history for murderous fundamentalists who transformed any day into a tragic event in which nothing would have remained the same. It's been over 20 years. Today that satanic moment has taught greater caution in facing everyday life with different and certainly alarmed priorities. Reviewing the safety of those who get on a plane, train or any public transport today represents for a civilized country a necessary objective to guarantee not only the safety of citizens but also to protect the infrastructures and reassure visitors; a social and certainly also an economic duty.
From these perspectives comes DEXTER – Detection of Explosives and Firearms to Counter Terrorism – funded by NATO and coordinated by scientists from Enea – whose president is Gilberto Dialuce – under the guidance of Luigi De Dominicis, INSTEAD project director. The other leading entities were Fraunhofer, Tno and Onera.
The presentation of the DEXTER industry day program took place at the Anagnina station of metro A in Rome, which in recent months has been the precious laboratory for refining the techniques for identifying weapons and explosive material, through a complex and preferably non-describable microwave systems. , similar to those of radars mounted on earth observation satellites, but obviously with much lighter penetration capabilities. Not harmful even to expectant mothers, as the technicians have pointed out during the demonstration. It is one of the opportunities offered by high technology that can be used to protect populations and public works. The plan was born three years ago from a collaboration of 11 research organizations from countries belonging to the Atlantic organization and four partner nations, including Ukraine. It is undoubtedly a very valid idea, which the scientists of Enea have been able to exploit with experience and competence, destined to substantially change the concept of safety and tranquility for the unarmed users of public transport mainly but also of any location considered at risk of attacks, because through artificial intelligence systems, a radar device acquires and generates images of concealed firearms in real time, using machine learning algorithms or with spectroscopy for explosives. These data acquired in parallel by the different sensors that regulate the flow of the generated data, signal and send the alarms of the identified threat. The operation can take place at a distance of several meters, with a probability of success currently declared higher than 99%; The quality of the images is then given by the refinement of the tools that will be used.
Now then there is the most delicate phase, that of the industrialization of the systems. This condition will determine the cost and timeframe for securing airport gates, bus terminals, or crowded areas. But these are significant choices. If you want to get a good result you have to invest: in techniques and applied research. This would also be a great opportunity for skilled jobs and a high-quality export.
Security is a cost. But it can also represent a valuable investment if you want to guarantee the safety of citizens and make areas where the risks can be higher attractive. A country that, like Italy, boasts of having hi-tech industries should have as its primary objective to spend resources in this sector. Not only in its definition.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/tutto-su-dexter-il-progetto-nato-enea-contro-il-terrorismo/ on Tue, 24 May 2022 14:44:29 +0000.