Acoustics Concealed Weapon Detection

George . A. Vadakkel
School Of Mechanical Aerospace and Civil Engineering

Acoustic Spectroscopy
ABSTRACT Figure 6

In resent years, research into the use of acoustic waves for the Directional Speaker
detection of concealed weapons has gained interest due to the Microphone and
possibility of producing very cost effective and safe CWD system. Two Disc
different approaches are researched i.e. acoustic spectroscopy and Figure 7
Acoustic imaging. In Acoustic spectroscopy the acoustic spectrum
from a target is used as acoustic signature to identify the target. In
acoustic imaging the time delay and sum beam forming algorithm is Target
used to develop a contour plot of the sound reflected back by the
target. By superimposing the acoustic contour plot on the targets Figure 5
Figure 8
photograph the position of the object can be obtained. The CWD
system works by focusing an intense sound beam on to a suspect. Figure (5) shows the setup used to identify a target by
Different models of the speaker array are created in a finite element using acoustic waves. Experimental trials are done 1.0
Structural Vs Acoustic responses from Cylinder
1000

(FE) environment. The FE models are then tested to determine the using directional speakers which can focus the sound 100

Figure 9

Normalized Structural Response

10

at any target. The characteristic of the acoustic signal

Normalized Acoustic Response

best configuration for an acoustic or ultrasonic speaker array. 0.8
1

produced at the source is recorded and used as 0.1

0.01

INTRODUCTION reference figure(6). 1E-3

1E-4

•Spectrograms from the target reveal that incident

0.6
1E-5

Concealed weapons such as knives and guns contribute to the Acoustic Response 1E-6

sound waves have been modulated figure(7). Structural Response

1E-7

majority of crimes taking place today. Most of these crimes could be

•The spectrogram of the reflected acoustic signal could
0.4 1E-8
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000

prevented if an effective system to detect concealed weapons Notes: Harmonic excitation from 1 Hz to 10k Hz
Frequency(Hz)

give indication of the object’s shape figure(8).

Acoustic response after differentiating three times and then normalizing.

existed. Almost all the CWD systems available are based on

electromagnetic waves technology. The use of sound waves in CWD
applications have gained resent interests due low cost acoustic and
ultrasonic transducers and lower health risks. Here at the University
of Manchester research work is carried out using Delay and Sum
Beam forming techniques (DSB) and acoustic spectroscopy to develop
an effective standoff acoustic wave based CWD system.
Acoustic Imaging
Figure 1 Acoustic Camera Front End
•By taking the ratio of the reflected and the incident
sound signals one could obtain the natural frequencies
of the object figure(9).
Design of a hyper directional Speaker
•The aim is to optimize the design of an ultrasonic
transducer array for CWD application.
•The effect of changing array parameters such as the
number of elements, inter element spacing, and
different focus are analyzed figure 11.
Ultrasonic Array
•The final configuration (figure 9) of the ultrasonic Figure 9
transducer array is based on the following beam
characteristic, maximum sound pressure in the main
lobe, good focusing capability, minimum beam width,
no grating lobes and minimum amplitude of side lobes. Figure 10
•Figure 10 shows the sound pressure field from the
optimised array at 1m focal length. Number of Transducers Vs Beam Length for
Beam Length Lb-at 90% maximum Pressure (in meters)

0.5 0G
Different Inter-Element Spacing
1G

Audio Spot Light Microphone Array Figure 2

2G
3G
100 80
Figure 12 0.4
4G
5G
120Main Lobe 60 6G

Figure 11 7G
8G
When a beam of sound is focused on a 0.3 9G

140 40
target, a part of the incident sound waves
is reflected back. The amount of sound 0.2

reflected back would depend on the 160 20

Grating 0.1
properties of skin, clothing & materials Lobe Side Lobe
used in the weapons. This contrast 0.0

difference between reflected sound 180

Radius 0.5m and Gap Between Transducers 20mm
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
Number of Transducer Elements Nt When Frequency is 39k Hz
Geometric Focus is at 1m
could be used to develop images of a
concealed weapon. A time delay and sum CONCLUSIONS
beam forming algorithm (DBS) is used to
•The concept of using time delay and sum beam forming for the development of an
plot a contour of the sound pressure field.
Figure 3 image of the concealed items behind clothing were demonstrated.
The equipment setup used is shown in
•Identification of concealed items by analysing the reflection from a concealed items
figure 1.
were researched
A steel ruler and an aluminium plate
•The sound reflections from the targets could be used as acoustic signatures to
were concealed underneath a T-shirt.
identify specific weapons
Figure 3 and 4 . The targets hidden behind
•A detailed study of the effect of changing different array parameters were analysed
the clothing cannot be identified by visual
using finite element method and a prototype ultrasonic transducer array built.
inspection. From the figures 3 & 4 one
could identify the location and
approximate shape of the ruler and the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
plate simply by looking at the area with
the maximum sound pressure . Figure 4 Dr. S.Olutunde Oyadiji, EPSRC, Home Office ,London Met Police