The Cobalt Insight100 Could Change Airport Security Measures

The Cobalt Insight100 is a new laser scanner capable of detecting explosive chemicals in liquids and gels by firing a laser into the bottle, and then measuring the light as it bounces back. Since every chemical creates its own shift in wavelength, the machine can figure out the contents of the bottle.

Although this kind of technology has been around for some time, the Cobalt Insight100 accomplishes it in five seconds with 0.5 percent false positives, according to Gizmodo.com. The difference with Cobalt’s latest product is that the new scanner “uses near-infrared lasers and technique called spatially offset raman spectroscopy,” which basically determines the amount of the bottle’s contents.

The scanner has already been approved by European flight agencies. The Insight100 is also capable of scanning cosmetic containers and even 3 liter bottles of pop. Liquids and gels have been banned from flights since 2006, when terrorists were caught attempting to fly with liquid explosives.