Devices detect caches of cash

R.A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Thu May 12 12:36:19 EDT 2005


<http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/11/money.sniffers.ap/index.html>

CNN


Inventions developed for Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 Posted: 12:43 PM EDT (1643 GMT)  Engineer Dennis
Kunerth uses a device to detect metal components that distinguish U.S.
currency from counterfeit bills, at the Idaho National Laboratory.


IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) -- Ah, the smell of money -- there's nothing quite
like it. Some people, in fact, may soon be looking for ways to mask the
special odor.

Drug traffickers who ship profits abroad in suitcases are not apt to be
thrilled with some inventions developed by federal scientists at the Idaho
National Laboratory.

One sniffs the air -- it can pick up a stack of bills from about 10 feet
away -- for currency's chemical signature. Another beams electrons through
packages or luggage to detect trace metals in the green ink.

And a third project, not yet started, would scan serial numbers of
individual bills into a database.

It's unclear whether the legal system would view seized bills found through
the devices as admissible, and privacy advocates fear such inventions would
infringe on civil liberties if adopted.

The cash sniffer is actually a gas chromatograph about the size of a
cordless hand vacuum.

Here's how it works: Take a crisp $20 bill out of your wallet and put it up
to your nose. That sweet, slightly acidic aroma is actually microscopic
molecules of ink and paper landing on the nerve receptors inside your nose.

The device works in nearly the same way, but with much higher sensitivity.
Airborne molecules land on a sensor. If enough molecules are detected, the
device emits an alert.

The lab's lead scientist, Keith Daum, said a trained dog can do the same
thing -- even better -- but not consistently and not over a long period.

The other, about the size of a small airport X-ray scanner, looks for
elemental metals used in the green ink. Radioactive rays strike the metals
and turn into gamma rays, which are then measured by the machine. The more
gamma rays detected, the higher the volume of cash bills.

The machines were developed with funding from Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency. Its parent, the Department of Homeland Security, is
analyzing them and submitting them to additional testing.

Of course, carrying cash -- even large amounts of it -- is not illegal;
though there is a limit of $10,000 in cash anyone may carry in or out of
the United States.

Still, intercepting large sums of money would at least put a dent in the
drug trade, argued lab spokesman Ethan Huffman.

"Money is always the incentive to bring drugs across the borders," Huffman
said. "If we can devise solutions to aid customs and border patrols in
stopping that, then that limits it."

The third device looks like a typical bill counter used by banks. On the
back of the machine, though, an add-on box about the size of a file folder
reads and stores the serial numbers of every bill it counts.

The machine is of little strategic value by itself. But if it was
distributed worldwide, and if there was a database of serial numbers, it
would become possible to trace money across the globe.

That worries people such as Melissa Ngo of the Washington-based Electronic
Privacy Information Center.

"This is just another step toward a complete lack of anonymity," Ngo said.


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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