Contraband Detection in Prisons Using Safe, Continuous, Passive Terahertz Imaging (SafeJail)

英国和全球的监狱都面临着持续和日益严重的毒品和违禁品问题。2017年，英格兰和威尔士监狱至少没收了15，000部移动的手机或SIM卡（每六名囚犯中就有一部，三年内增加了50%）。2017年，在英格兰和威尔士的监狱中发现了13，119次毒品（每天35起以上，比2014年增加了3倍），走私者采用无人机等技术进行交付。工作人员走私也加剧了这种情况。根据监狱官员协会的数据，英国监狱毒品市场的价值估计为1亿英镑。所有这一切都导致监狱动荡不安，损害囚犯的健康，并危及所有监狱利益攸关方的安全。迫切需要增强扫描技术，以便每天对囚犯进行安全和非侵入性扫描，而不中断监狱的正常日常工作。现有的解决方案要求囚犯在扫描过程中保持静止，非常耗时，并且无法检测到小于5厘米乘5厘米的违禁品。SafeJail是一个为期18个月的项目，旨在开发和展示一种新技术，用于在囚犯、来访者和工作人员进行正常活动时对他们进行安全和连续的不间断扫描。该项目将开发一种无源（非发射）成像相机，具有机器学习算法提供的强大对象识别能力。该技术的成功开发将在市场上6年后带来5800万英镑的累计收入。

Prisons in the UK and globally are facing continued and increasing drug and contraband problems. At least 15,000 mobile phones or SIM cards were confiscated in English and Welsh prisons in 2017 (one for every six inmates, a 50% increase in 3 years). Drugs were found 13,119 times in prisons in England and Wales in 2017 (35+ incidents per day, 3x increase from 2014), with smugglers resorting to technologies such as drones for delivery. Staff smuggling is also exacerbating the situation. The value of UK prison drug market is an estimated £100m, according to the Prison-Officers-Association. All this is leading to unrest in prisons, compromising prisoners' health and compromising the safety of all prison stakeholders.There is an urgent need for enhanced scanning techniques that can offer safe and non-invasive scanning of prisoners on a daily basis, without interruption to normal prison routine. Existing solutions require prisoners to be stationary during a scan, are time-consuming and cannot detect contraband items smaller than 5cm by 5cm. SafeJail is an 18-month project that seeks to develop and demonstrate a novel technique for the safe and continuous non-interruptive scanning of prisoners, visitors and staff as they carry out their normal activities. This project will develop a passive (non-emitting) imaging camera with robust object recognition capability provided by machine learning algorithms. The successful exploitation of the technology will result in cumulative revenue of £58m after 6 years in the market.