The University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) will use artificial intelligence-enabled walkthrough scanners to screen students, faculty, and visitors for improved campus safety.
The University of Wisconsin Police Department has signed on to beta test a security detection walkthrough portal from Liberty Defense. According to a press release from UW-Madison and Liberty Defense, the walkthrough portal – named HEXWAVE – uses “advanced threat detection with 3D radar imaging and artificial intelligence to detect and identify concealed threats of all types, including metallic and nonmetallic weapons.”
The system is both touchless and has a high throughput, which will be essential as the system will be used for the school’s sporting events. Additionally, according to the press release, the system can be used indoors and outdoors and enables the implementation of a layered defense strategy. Liberty Defense claims this “provides security teams with more time to manage threats by detecting them at the perimeter of a property in addition to security checkpoints.”
“The security of our campus is, of course, a top priority,” said Kristen Roman, chief of police at UW-Madison. “We are excited to have the opportunity to be the first campus to test this new technology. We understand how important it is for organizations to keep innovating when it comes to security, and we look forward to kicking off the testing in 2022.”
As Roman alluded to, testing is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2022 and progress into the third quarter of this year.
