X-Ray Screening of Goods at Borders

This continuously growing industry with an ever-increasing amount of goods passing through checkpoints is nowadays supported by X-ray screening. Unlike screening in aviation security, customs agencies often have to X-ray screen large containers of whole lorries. Therefore, customs officers require more time to analyze images because of the complexity in order to find security threats and contraband smuggled by perpetrators. To support this task, CASRA developed a totally new application, the Customs X-Ray Simulator that mimics all important aspects of real-life upscale X-ray equipment. It has been developed in close collaboration with Customs organization within the EU-funded FP7 project ACXIS.

Example Use Case: The ACXIS Project

Automated Comparison of X-ray Images for Cargo Scanning (ACXIS) is a research project funded by the European Union under the 7th framework program that aimed to provide automated detection techniques of threats and illicit goods in cargo screening. The idea of the automated detection techniques was to support visual inspection of customs officers by directing their attention on suspicious areas in the X-ray image and therefore enhance decision-making.

In order to evaluate whether the automated detection techniques developed in the project indeed increase detection performance of custom officers, CASRA conducted a validation study and developed a customs training and testing simulator which is able to display X-ray images of high-energy machines, shows waybill information and allows users to manipulate and respond to the image. The customs simulator developed in the project is available today for customers with the need to train and test their custom officers in X-ray image interpretation.

Example Use Case: The ACXIS Project

Automated Comparison of X-ray Images for Cargo Scanning (ACXIS) is a research project funded by the European Union under the 7th framework program that aimed to provide automated detection techniques of threats and illicit goods in cargo screening. The idea of the automated detection techniques was to support visual inspection of customs officers by directing their attention on suspicious areas in the X-ray image and therefore enhance decision-making.

In order to evaluate whether the automated detection techniques developed in the project indeed increase detection performance of custom officers, CASRA conducted a validation study and developed a customs training and testing simulator which is able to display X-Ray images of high-energy machines, shows waybill information and allows users to manipulate and respond to the image. The customs simulator developed in the project is available today for customers with the need the train and test their custom officers in X-Ray image interpretation.