Houston Ship Channel Physical Security – A Case Study

The Houston Ship Channel (HSC) is a 50-mile long shipping channel that contains many private ports including the Port of Houston Authority. It has a uniquely critical role with respect to the US petroleum energy supply. The HSC security is currently planned for significant enhancement under the auspices of the Harris County and the Houston-based Port Strategic Security Council. The ultimate objective is to comprehensively address the HSC threat matrix.

Integrated Conformal Antenna System Reduces Interference

A rugged, low profile antenna could simultaneously serve most of the many radio systems for both voice and data currently used in police cars and other public safety vehicles. The new system, being developed by Dr. Jeffery T. Williams and his colleagues at the University of Houston’s Electrical Engineering Department, would replace the thicket of vertical whips, fins, and helices currently in use.

Ballistic Soft Body Armor

University of Houston researcher Dr. S.S. Wang is developing a suite of computer models that will help evaluate and predict the performance of ballistic body armor designs. Actual ballistic lab tests will be used to verify and calibrate the models. In addition, he and his colleagues will be evaluating the way the materials involved degrade with normal wear.

Automated Face Recognition System for Monitoring Ingress/Egress

Monitoring ingress and egress is vital to maintaining a secure access–control environment. Biometrics-based automated systems are not foolproof, but add a layer of redundancy, making the entire identification process less error-prone and more efficient. Face recognition is perhaps the most attractive biometric technology since, unlike fingerprints and retina scans, it has the potential to be done passively and unobtrusively at a comfortable distance. So far, automated face recognition systems have met with little success. Their performance is moderate when employed in access control applications (cooperative subjects) and degrades significantly when employed in surveillance (uncooperative subjects).

Improving Video Streaming Technology for Public Safety Vehicles

SWTC developed and patented a signal strength filtering (SSF) scheme, which relies on the wireless signal strength to filter packet delay due to automatic repeat requests and losses due to wireless channel errors. In collaboration with Kustom Signals, Inc., SWTC is also developing a new error control method, called Priority-Based Error Control (PEC) for QoS, which manages the compressed video packets under specific network requirements and priorities.

RFID Property and Evidence Management

The purpose of this project is to research and develop a RFID-based Property and Evidence Management System that can be used by law enforcement officials to tag each piece of property and/or evidence on location and at storage facility. The System will also allow law enforcement officials and court systems to retrieve or return property or evidence items before, during and after trials.