And this week, they
will finally meet a huge international industry player to explore possibilities of commercialisation.
UMARS is a non-invasive technique to identify explosive and hazardous chemicals hidden inside
any container, including non-metallic ones like envelopes, plastic and coloured glass bottles.
Speaking about the response it has stirred, nationally and internationally, Umapathy tells Herald
Review, “One huge international industry has come forward, but none from India. Of course,
we did get several calls, mostly from security agencies in Delhi, but none culminated into anything
concrete. No one from India has approached us from the industrial point of view.” Based on Raman spectroscopy, UMARS relies on illuminating the sample with a light source, which provides scattered light, offering molecular specific signatures to identify the chemical substance.
For the last two years, the professor-student duo have been working towards a defence application.
“Detection of the most fundamental explosives is still a challenge in India, and there is very limited
work done in this area. We also wanted a non-invasive technique combined with molecular
signature,” says Sil, who wanted to team with Umapathy after hearing his take on Raman spectroscopy at a conference few years ago. But Sil adds, “The instrumentation of UMARS is very
different from Raman spectroscopy. The former has huge potential in other fields of science too.”
Currently, Sil is back to pursuing a PhD from High Energy Materials Research Laboratory,
Pune. According to the scientists, UMARS can be used by the police, the armed forces, and also
has commercial application at airports, railway stations, bus stations and ports.
This technique fills in a gap left by conventional X-ray baggage screening methods currently in
use, which cannot detect and identify explosives packed in liquids in bottles such as water, milk,
creams, emulsions, alcohol or other chemicals. “It can be used in any place where there is a
security threat, and even to detect narcotics,” states Umapathy about the wide spectrum it covers.
Explaining how UMARS works, the professor says that they profile the signatures of all explosives
and hazardous substances, upload the molecular data on the computer and scan with a portable easy-to-operate device. “Whenever a packet or a bottle containing the listed chemical or liquids is subjected to a check, the machine would be able detect it,” he says. Apart from the security and defence sector, UMARS can be used as a medical diagnostic tool to detect tumours and even find out whether it is cancerous or not. “Cancerous cells look very different from normal cells. With this technique, you can avoid the biopsy procedure. Even in hospitals, UMARS can identify counterfeit medicines, without touching the packaging,” states Umapathy, while Sil adds that their intention was to find a technique to tap into the unique signature of every molecule. The technique employs the principle of deep penetration of photons and diffusion using nonabsorbing media and employing multiple scattering and detection of signals from all observable angles.
Speaking about the device, which can detect samples within 100 milliseconds, Sil states they already have already filed two patents, and several more are underway.
