Six in running for anti-terrorism tech challenge

Two U.S. anti-terrorism technology start-up companies are among the six finalists in the Global Security Challenge competition to be decided before judges in London on Nov. 13. The Defense Department's Technical Support Working Group will give the winner a $500,000 grant.

The group is a program element of DOD's Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office, which reports to the assistant secretary of Defense for special operations/low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities.

The two U.S. finalists are TRX Systems Inc., of College Park, Md., and Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories Inc., of Seattle.

Founded by Gilmer Blankenship, TRX offers an advanced personnel-tracking system that provides real-time locations of first responders deployed within a building or structure. It consists of a central base station and electronic devices worn by the individuals. The system helps in the rapid rescue of fire, police and medical response personnel and others in distress.

It also functions as a health monitor, detecting and alerting operators to medical distress calls and automatically logs all data for replay, analysis and training.

Brain Fingerprinting Labs developed a technology that can be used in interrogations of criminal and terrorism suspects.

The other finalists are:

• Beyond Encryption Technologies, of Dublin, Ireland, which makes a device that can be used to rapidly identify and repel computer-system intruders.
  
• Hiperware, of Singapore, which makes a real-time decision device.
  
• IntuView, of Israel, which makes artificial intuition software that categorizes, summarizes and extracts information from large batches of Arabic-language documents.
  
• Precision Sensors Instrumentation, of Armenia, which makes sensors that offer enhanced detection capabilities in zero-visibility settings.