When Igor Zlochin, a scientist in the field of electro-optics and a laser specialist from the Technion – the Israeli Institute of technology, sat in his lab in Haifa, while trying to find a way to detect earthquakes, he stumbled on to a brilliant and innovative way to sense vibrations wirelessly from distance in a very accurate and cost-effective process.
A month later, he met with Hagai Goldovsky and Yossi Forkush, experienced entrepreneurs in the Israeli startup eco-system, in order to brainstorm about the potential of the technology.
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A short period of time after that meeting, the 3 co-founded Xbeamer technologies and brought aboard Ms. Noga Perry, who held senior executive positions in Salesforce, Comverse, Sungard, CA and a managing partner of Israel Innovation Partners.
Founded in the beginning of 2017, the startup got initial funding from the Israeli Innovation authority in order to achieve a proof of concept for tunneling detection and earthquake monitoring and applied a patent for the technology.
While developing the POC, the team discovered other potential industries that can benefit using the technology, such as Intelligence organizations, Parameter Security, Mining, Industrial IoT, and Medical.
Hagai Goldovsky, Co-founder: “Our technology uses a low energy laser beam, reflected from a special design surface, then monitored by an optical device that senses the behavior of the beam.
The data received is then being analyzed by sophisticated algorithms that provide critical insights such as vibrations, movements, de-formation and more”.
Today, existing technologies and devices such as seismometers are highly expensive and the hardware requires high maintenance and is very complex.
Xbeamer’s breakthrough technology enables accurate laser measurement of small displacement and vibration at a precision of a few nanometers in a simple process, yet still highly cost-effective.
Igor Zlochin, Chief Scientist: “Through our field tests, we were able to prove that our technology specifications are more than impressive. Our technology uses 3-axis displacements & vibrations monitoring, measuring the most sensitive Frequency Range from DC up to 100kHz. Our Displacement & Vibration Amplitude is below 0.002 microns, which enables us to measure and diagnose critical data underground down to 40 meters deep, and above ground by up to 10km”.
Xbeamer is currently in their seed funding round, which will enable the company to fully develop its core technology and complete their breakthrough underground tunneling detection solution.
Today, both Israel and United States are dealing with a threat of underground tunnels, Israel in its border with Gaza and United States in the Mexico border.
So far, the most reliable method of tunnel detection in the US Mexico border is what officers call “good old-fashioned police work,” with officials pursuing leads from informants who notice suspicious jackhammer sounds, large piles of dirt, or people coming and going at unusual hours.
But U.S. federal agencies are now seeking to improve tunnel detection technologies.
“We need to bring the technology piece. Right now, it’s lacking,” says a senior border officer.