By: Megan Kirkpatrick

Corridor Magazine, serving North Central West Virginia by publishing a bi-monthly periodical covering the people, places, and lifestyles of Monongalia, Marion, Harrison, and Taylor counties, published an extensive cover story in their August-September issue on the “High Technology Highway.”  The piece highlighted high-tech innovations taking place along the I-79 Corridor. 

Innovative Response Technologies, a subsidiary of the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation (WVHTC), showed off the latest version of their BomBot, a remote controlled device that safely detonates bombs.  Developers recently introduced the X-Bot, a similar device that can run longer and hold more.  The new model can carry 45-50 pounds, compared to the 15-20 of the original.  This alteration helps the X-Bot adapt to various situations with new towing capabilities and attachment options. 

Another successful project covered in the article coming out of the WVHTC Foundation is AmberView.  AmberView is a program that can retrieve a three-dimensional photograph of a child upon the issuance of an Amber Alert.  So far, children in 54 of the 55 counties in West Virginia have had the opportunity to participate, however, only 35,000 of the state’s 250,000 children are in the database, but the number is expected to grow this fall. 

Corridor also wrote about the National Biometric Security Project’s Citizens Benefit Card, a single identity card that could hold your driver’s license information, insurance coverage, fishing permit, and more.  The smart card would be encrypted with a biometric component in addition to a traditional photo.  The card could help nationalize ID cards, making it easier to identify victims and fugitives state to state. 

Another featured innovation is InteliGate, a biometrically controlled keyless entry point.  With the scan of a fingertip, the system knows if it is to grant access and when.  It can control the flow of employees on certain shifts and even change who it grants access to according to the Homeland Security threat level.  Global Science & Technology, in Fairmont, hopes to adapt the system for many controllable situations. 

SecurLinx in Morgantown explained one of their innovations, FaceTrac, a program that can identify people by their face through cameras.  Tested during the 2001 Super Bowl, the program picked out several minor criminals from 32 cameras set up around the stadium.

The final biometrically inspired project covered was about Tactical Analysis of Video Imagery, or TAVI.  This software would combine two different programs, making it possible to identify suspicious people or behaviors caught on surveillance cameras.  The project is being conducted so that the military can identify known terrorist and uncover networks of terrorists by watching their  interactions. 

For the complete 13 page article log on to www.corridormagazine.com.  The entire August-September Issue should be posted soon.