|
Originally published on 07/22/2002
A few months ago, I found myself discussing security technologies with Wired's editor-in-chief Chris Anderson. I mentioned a tale I'd heard, that somebody was making a gadget to sense the presence of a terrorist bomber by picking up the odor a nervous person might make when he thinks he is about to die.
Fast Facts:
Computerized Thermal Imaging
www.cti-net.com |
| CEO |
Richard V. Secord
|
| HQ |
Lake Oswego, OR
|
| Employees |
50
|
| Market |
Thermal Imaging
|
| Funding |
Public, December 2000 (AMEX: CIO)
|
| Profitable? |
Projected in 2004
|
"Ah yes, the effluvia theory," Chris said, basically ending that part of the conversation.
A few weeks later, the effluvia theory came up again when I met with people from Computerized Thermal Imaging, which makes products that can apparently tell the difference between malignant and benign breast tumors by reading the minuscule variations in heat given off by points on a breast when it's faced with a "thermal challenge" -- a blast of cold air. While the CTI sensor table would make any schoolboy (or even a grown technology journalist) snicker, in seriousness I'm told that malignant tumors give off heat differently from benign masses, and CTI's products read this.
But if thermal imaging is so great, why isn't it in wider use? SVP of Marketing John Ott told me that in the 1980s the unregulated field of medical thermal imaging was largely discredited. CTI is fighting this perception as it works its device through the FDA.
Furthermore, John said, "you should know" that CTI's CEO is retired Air Force Major General Richard V. Secord, who was indicted in the Iran Contra scandal of the 1980s.
Thermal imaging science is intriguing. And most likely, Secord's Air Force connections help the company source infrared equipment derived from military technologies, which CTI is based on. Still, CTI has a politically damaged CEO pitching a formerly discredited technology. This whole enterprise could be a complete non-starter. Or it could be a story of redemption, both for the man and the science.
- Rafe Needleman
email: rafe-needleman@catchoday.com
|
