Title:
Airport Security Could Go to 'Electronic Sniffer
Dogs'
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
Dogs are known for a strong sense of smell. Their
noses can be trained to identify different odors.
Dogs are often used in search and rescue operations
and to sniff for things like drugs and explosives.
Some dogs have even been trained to sniff for cancer
in people. Researchers have been trying to reproduce
the extraordinary sense of smell that dogs are born
with. Now, officials at the Glasgow airport in
Scotland are testing a new security device called an
"electronic sniffer dog." The electronic sniffer dog
represents one of the latest developments in the
area of smell technology.A Scottish company, Cascade
Technologies, joined with the French security
company Morpho to develop it. The device uses lasers
to identify explosive material in gases in the air.
The purpose is to identify explosives that may be
hidden on a person's body. The machine looks similar
to the metal detectors now used at airports.
Passengers walk through the machine as the lasers
test the surrounding air. People are not required to
take off their coats, belts or shoes as part of the
security process. And, unlike full-body scanners,
the new device does not show images of the
passenger. Officials at Cascade Technologies say the
machine can process one person per second and
produce almost immediate results. They say future
developments could cut security processing times at
airports by screening all passengers at walking
speed. Professor Yushan Yan is the head of Chemical
and Environmental Engineering at the University of
California, Riverside. His research team has been
working on a similar sniffer device since two
thousand eight. He points out that unlike real dogs,
electronic devices do not get tired or need to be
walked or require food and water. Professor Yan says
real sniffer dogs also have other needs. He said:
"They also need very extensive training that could
be expensive. And when they work they have to have a
very skilled handler around them."But Professor Yan
says in his experience, there is an important area
where man's best friend still wins compared to
technology. He said dogs are able to identify
extremely small amounts of explosives. But Professor
Yan says electronic sniffer technology is developing
quickly and could have a lot of uses in the future.
For VOA Special English I'm Alex Villarreal. For
more of our reports go to voaspecialenglish.com.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
