Soft Target Engineering to Neutralize the Threat Reality (SENTRY)

The SENTRY Lab is designed to look and feel like a TSA Security Checkpoint at any American airport. Created to detect malicious and nefarious behavior and items, the SENTRY system is a high-tech checkpoint scenario that uses video data to track passengers and their items through security checkpoints.

SENTRY’s Correlating Luggage and Specific Passengers (CLASP) Project has developed software capable of processing data from CCTV video cameras to track passengers and their items through the airport security checkpoint in real-time. This software can automatically identify when passengers enter and exit the checkpoint, what items belong to which people, and unusual behaviors, such as theft or items left at the checkpoint. Automated Tracking Algorithms (ATAs) are trained to use video data to track passengers and their items through the checkpoint. The goal of CLASP is to assist the TSA in improving the passenger experience through reduced wait times, enabling more efficient screening processes, minimizing theft and keeping track of passenger items, as well as improving detection performance in airports. CLASP is funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Screening at Speed program through the DHS Office of University Programs.