A reliable method of remotely detecting concealed guns and explosives attached to the
human body is of great interest to governments and security forces throughout the world.
This thesis describes the development and trials of a new remote non-imaging concealed
threat detection method using active millimetre wave radar using the microwave and mmwave
frequencies bands 14 β 40 and 75 β 110 GHz (Ku, K, Ka and W). The method is
capable of not only screening for concealed objects, like the current generation of
concealed object detectors, but also of differentiating between mundane and threat objects.
The areas focused upon during this investigation were: identifying the impact of different
commonly worn fabrics as barriers to detection; consulting with end users about their
requirements and operational needs; a comparison of different frequency bands for the
detection of guns and explosives; exploring the effects of polarisation on object detection;
a performance comparison of different detection schemes using Artificial Neural
Networks; improving existing data acquisition systems and prototyping of a real-time
capture system