U.S. & World

WEB EXTRA: New Technology Detects Chemical Attacks

LOS ANGELES (CBS13) ― Intelligent Optical Systems is working on about 15 projects right now, many of them for Homeland Security. One of those projects is called "Di-Cast," which is designed to detect chemicals that may be used by terrorists in an attack on the US.

Developer Bob Lieberman explained how the Di-Cast cables works.

"The whole length of the cable is the chemical sensor, so within the cable, we have optical fibers which are designed to respond to the presence of cyanide, which is a major threat from terrorists, chlorine gas, nerve gas, and even hydrogen sulfide," said Lieberman.

"Up to now, basically what you've had to do is to put a little box somewhere where you think those chemicals might be released, and hope the terrorist was kind enough to stand right next to the box when they opened up their canister of toxic gas," said Lieberman.

"With our system, we have a box, but hooked up to the box are cables which can snake out in any directions, in multiple directions, and as soon as the chemical target reaches the cable, bingo, you get an alarm, and you can warn people much sooner," he said.

"When a chemical attacks the fiber, the color changes," Lieberman said. "This one will bleach out a sort of green, this one will lose its color entirely. It can tell you what it has detected, and with a little bit more sophistication, it can tell you even where, exactly, the cable got hit."

"We'd originally thought the military was going to be our primary customer, but 9/11 changed all that," Lieberman said. "It's now really much more important for us, and we've focused our development efforts directly on counter-terrorism applications."

Several million dollars have been spent developing "Di-Cast" over the last five years, and they hope to release the product later this year. Right now it's being tested out in the subway system of a major city, but Lieberman couldn't reveal which city that is.

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