Combinatorial Analytics for Hazardous Object Assembly Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current security measures in physical environments, such as airports, fail to detect hazardous objects that become harmful when combined, as individual components are not identified as threats until they assemble at a location, evading conventional detection methods.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method and system that uses combinatorial analytics to analyze travel plans and object combinations, identifying potential harmful combinations and relationships between individuals carrying benign objects, which are then flagged for suspicion through intersection determination and property analysis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional detection methods are used to scan individuals and objects separately, then individual detection accuracy is maintained, but hazardous combinations of benign objects are not detected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges separate detection streams for different objects carried by different individuals into a unified combinatorial analysis system. The system combines benign objects from multiple persons that converge at the same location and time, analyzing their potential harmful combinations together rather than in isolation, thereby detecting threats that individual scans would miss
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary detection and tracking of individuals carrying benign objects before they converge at a target location. By monitoring travel plans, convergence points, and object combinations in advance, the system identifies potential threats before the harmful combination is assembled, enabling preventive security measures
2Reliability
If comprehensive analysis of all object combinations is performed, then detection of harmful combinations is improved, but computational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the security detection problem into distinct modules: individual object detection, travel plan analysis, convergence point identification, and combinatorial hazard assessment. Each module handles a specific aspect of the analysis independently, reducing overall computational complexity while maintaining comprehensive detection capability
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies partial analysis by focusing computational resources only on combinations of objects carried by individuals who converge at the same location and time. Rather than analyzing all possible object combinations in the environment, the system selectively analyzes only those combinations that pose a realistic threat based on spatial and temporal convergence data
3Speed
If real-time monitoring of all individuals and objects is implemented, then threat detection speed is improved, but data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and isolates only the critical data elements necessary for combination analysis: individual identities, carried objects, travel plans, and convergence locations. By extracting only these essential parameters from the broader security monitoring data stream, the system reduces data processing requirements while maintaining real-time threat detection capability
Data Source
AI summary
For securing a physical environment, an intersection determination is performed using a first record of a first person and a second record of a second person, to determine whether a travel plan of the first person and a travel plan of the second person intersect at a location and a time. When the intersection determination is affirmative, an analysis is performed whether a first object associated with the first person and a second object associated with the second person are combinable to form a combined object having a combined property. When the combined property is designated as harmful in the physical environment, a suspicion indication is outputted. The suspicion indication includes an identity of the first person, an identity of the second person, and a level of suspicion.