Erudite’s ready and waiting

EVERETT – From his office window, Paul Willms can see Port Gardner Bay and the working waterfront at its edge.

He hopes one day that most, if not all, of the shipping containers moving through the port there will use his company’s inventions.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, ports have been identified as easy targets for a terrorist attack. Sen. Patty Murray has been a national leader in legislation pushing for careful tracking of incoming shipping containers.

“We’ve held that ground that we have to track these things all the time. You can’t let them out of your sight,” said Willms, founder and chief executive officer of Erudite Inc.

Only a fraction of the 7 million or more shipping containers entering the U.S. annually are scanned for security risks.

Based in downtown Everett, Erudite is refining a combination of acoustic, satellite tracking and other technologies to create a system that keeps an electronic eye and ear on cargo as it moves around the globe.

Les Atlas, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington, said “off-the-shelf” solutions for securing shipping containers have been proposed, but a host of companies are trying to develop new, better ways to do it.

Until recently, however, the problem hasn’t attracted much in the way of research or sizable grants.

In mid-2005, Atlas and Erudite received a Washington Technology Center grant to further develop container locks and tracking devices. After more than three years of work, the firm has developed prototypes with the help of about $2 million from investors.

Erudite’s prototypes include the XCoupler, which is designed to mount on the inside of a shipping container and transmit a picture made with sound waves, an acoustic profile, of what’s inside. It also can listen for any unusual noises inside the container during shipping.

The company also has developed a Global Positioning System-enabled lock, which won’t allow anyone to open the container until it reaches the coordinates of its destination. It also tracks the container’s journey and sends out an alert if someone tries to tamper with it.

The key is that components of Erudite’s system travel with the container and relay information constantly, Willms said. That’s in contrast to most of the port security systems in place now, which peek at containers only at either ends of their trip.

“A full, comprehensive solution needs to be on all the time,” Willms said.

To try out its products, Erudite now owns two containers. Willms and Atlas said their next goal is to incorporate technology that can detect lead and similar materials that might be used to shield a bomb from scanners.

With a tiny staff right now, Erudite is competing with the likes of IBM, GE and Lockheed-Martin in developing better tracking equipment for containers. But there’s no one inexpensive, reliable standard technology that’s emerged as a clear leader.

Willms said he’s moving toward raising more financing, with the goal of being ready to demonstrate Erudite’s system on a large scale next year. He’s planning a high-profile product launch, which he’s calling the China 8 Project that will tie in with the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

In the meantime, Willms has met with legislators in Olympia and Washington, D.C., to pitch his company’s solution for port security. Murray’s success last week in getting $400 million included for a port security grant program in the proposed 2008 federal budget gives Willms hope that more resources and attention will come to port security solutions.

“This is not just about a safe America, but about safe trade around the world,” he said.

Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.