InVision soars on U.S. FAA image scanners deal
WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Shares in InVision Technologies Inc <INVN.O> soared 24 percent on Friday after the firm won a contract to provide the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration with imaging systems to detect concealed weapons.
The federal government has been scrambling to beef up security at airports across the United States after four commercial airplanes were hijacked, three of which were crashed into the World Trade Center twin towers and the Pentagon killing thousands of people.
The FAA bought from InVision's Quantum Magnetics subsidiary several i-Portal 100 imaging detection systems that will be installed at undisclosed locations in the United States in addition to recent purchases of portal hardware from Milestone Technology Inc totalling $445,300, InVision said in a statement.
"The tragedy of September 11th has highlighted the need for deployment of advanced, yet easy to use, security technology and security procedures," said Lowell Burnett, chief executive of the Quantum unit. "The i-Portal 100 system, with its image-based screening process, fits these requirements."
Shares of Newark, California-based InVision shot up $4.93, or 24 percent, to $25.15 on volume of 7.9 million shares on Nasdaq.
The system can show weapons such as guns and knives as a coloured dot superimposed on a digital image as the person passes through the sensors, showing the precise location of the weapon on a computer screen, the company said.
The systems also store each person's image which could allow security personnel to review passenger screenings later, InVision said in the statement.
The hijackers allegedly slipped box-cutter knives past security, took control of the airliners and two of the airplanes slammed into the World Trade Center in New York and a third into the Pentagon in Washington. The fourth plane crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania.
22:33 11-30-01 |
