This conference brings together emerging technologies for countering terrorism and crime and providing support to defence forces. It addresses the big issue of maintaining security and safety by detecting and identifying dangerous, hidden and camouflaged materials and recognizing suspicious behavior from video imagery, all the while working within a legal and moral framework that respects individuals’ rights.

Sensors for explosives, narcotics, and chemical and biological warfare agents must provide a prompt alert with fast, wide area coverage and must cope with unexpected hiding places. If they are to be routinely deployed, such sensors must offer accurate detection and low false alarm rates, use few consumables and need little operator involvement. Optical sensing now extends from UV, through visible and infrared, into terahertz and RF wavelengths, offering novel imaging systems with increased penetration through barriers, and spectroscopic techniques that can help characterize suspicious materials.

The threat from people’s activities can be reduced by identifying suspicious behaviour and by tracking individuals across multiple TV cameras. Increased computing power and advanced algorithms are expected to help in difficult scenarios such as crowded environments (face and iris recognition or other biometrics), and longer range imagery through turbulent atmospheres. Improved handover techniques from TV imaging will reduce the burden placed on local sensors.

This conference provides a forum for researchers, product and system engineers and military and government officials to present and discuss the latest developments in optically-based sensor and diagnostic technologies and their applications.