DIRECTED ENERGY 

BIOMETRICS AND REMOTE 

SENSING

Michael D. Colvard, DDS, MTS, MS 

Associate Professor/ DEMRT Director

Certified Medical Laser Safety Officer 

Member: ANSI Z136.5 and .8

Member, Oral Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons
DEMRT DISCLOSURE

• USAF

• USAF Surgeon General (USAF SGR), Falls Church, VA

• Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton

• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

• American National Standards Institute (ANSI): Z136.ORG 

• Z136 SSC-5: Lasers in Education Facilities 

• Z136 SSC-8: Lasers in R&D and Testing

• Z136 TSC-1: Bio-effects

• FBI / NCIC, National Dental Image Repository (NDIR)

• American Dental Association (ADA), Council on Dental Practice (CDP)

• Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD)

• University of Illinois at Chicago Police Depart, State of Illinois Police
UIC DEMRT BIOMETRICS EFFORT

Carla Evans, DMD, DMSc, Dept Head, Orthodontics, UIC

Karl Larsen, PhD, Dept Head, Forensic Sciences, UIC

Michael Cailis, PhD, Dept Head, EOHS, Public Health, UIC

David Peters, JD, Commander, UIC Police, State of Illinois Police

Jason Leigh, PhD, Dept of Computer Sciences, Director, EVL, UIC

Ryan Williams, PhD, Dept Head, Anthropology, Field Museum, Chicago, IL

William Pestle, PhD (Anthropology), Miami University

Geoffrey Cordell, PhD, FLS, (Chemistry) DEMRT

Ben Vesper, PhD, MBA, PMP, (Chemistry), DEMRT

James James, MD, DrPH, NDLSF, DEMRT

Koichi Nakakuki, DDS, PhD, Tokyo Medical and Dental Univ, Tokyo, Japan 

Rodrigo Villalobos, DDS, MS, MS, Dean, ULATINA, San Jose, CR

Emilio Mordini, MD, PhD, CSSC, Rome, Italy
DENTAL DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

What is a Dental Responder

2012 Illinois Public Acts 225, ILCS

25/54.2, “A dentist or dental hygienist

who is a dental emergency responder is

deemed to be acting within the bounds

of his or her license when providing care

during a declared local, state, or national

emergency.”

Dentists and dental hygienists can

support national emergency, disaster,

and forensic needs providing clinical

care and infrastructure for: “walking well”

care, pandemic vaccination support,

biometric information, and forensic

dentistry. The Illinois Oral Health Care

community assists the State of Illinois by

providing licensed dental personnel for

surge support to major disasters,

pandemics, for forensic identification,

and other readiness planning needs, as

determined by appropriate authorities. 

 

UIC-DEMRT OFFICE:

The UIC Dental Emergency Medicine

Responder Training (DEMRT) Office

assists various national and Illinois

agencies through strategy and policy,

curriculum and education, and research

and development (R&D) support for

disaster, pandemic, forensic, and other

biometric and response needs.

DEMRT operates in association with the

American Dental Association (ADA), 

Council on Dental Practice (CDP) the

Association of State & Territorial Dental

Directors (ASTDD), and other

Department of Defense and Federal

Agencies to support disaster response,

pandemic, and forensic response needs. 2006

Illinois Public Act 94-409: Dental 

Emergency Responder passes

2011

US House of Representatives: H.R. 

570 Dental Emergency Responder 

(DER) passes full House

2013

US House of Representative H.R. 307 

Passes: Pandemic and All Hazards 

Preparedness Reauthorization ACT

Dental

Emergency

Responders 

(DER)

2013 H.R. 307:

“Dental Assets”

“Dental Health Facilities” 

“Dental Curricula & 

Training” 

Colvard MD, et..al. The dental emergency responder: expanding the scope of dental practice. 2006, JADA, 

137:468-473. 
Z136.Org; SSC-8: Safe Use of Lasers in 

Research, Development, and Testing 

Chair: Ken Barat 

New Hazard Evaluation Parameters

Discussion of Alignment Eyewear

Improved Robotics Section

Information on Export Controls

Full Color Signage and Diagrams

New and Reorganized Appendices

Sample Audit Forms

And more

ANSI Z 136.8
DIRECTED ENERGY REMOTE SENSING: 

Richard Preston, PhD, SSI

Personnel Protection 

Laser Sensor

Laser Geo-location 

Sensor

Active Sensor

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

Raman Shift (cm1)

30sec integration time

 

 

 

 

 

Spectral

CW and Pulsed laser detection/warning

Warns of laser events at <0.001×MPE 

(maximum permissible exposure)

Incorporates eye protection filter

Alerts if eye protection is effective

Records amplitude, time, GPS, PRF of 

events (110o FOV, <1 lb)

AP HILL TEST: Retro-reflection: 1 kilometer Laser designator

Person carrying PPS

Data
HAND-HELD, DIRECTED ENERGY 

SENSOR for CLINICAL APPS

OBJECTIVE: Portable detectors of: 1) laser radiation, 2) human exposure, 3) BIOLOGICAL Biometrics

• Identify BIOLOGICAL SPECIMENS 

• Detect Clinical threats 

• Protect from exposure to DE radiation 

GOAL: Hand-Held, Off-the-shelf, laser based, detection technology, ported to a PDA

APPLICATIONS: Anthropology, Dental Forensics, Botanical Discovery, Environmental, Medical, 

Occupational , Leverages future Hand-held, DE spectroscopy advancements for biological biometrics.

Detect, Identify, Evaluate, Store, Transmit

Hand-Held, Area Protection, UAV-portable

Biometric, Remote sensing, Spectroscopic 

Problem: Benefits:

Colvard MD, Naiman M, Danziger L, Hanley L., Handheld directed energy sensor for environmental monitoring and clinician safety,

Aviat Space Environ Med. 2010 Jun;81(6):602-4.

LASER WAVELENGTH METER

Beam Generator

Lens

DE EMISSION
DE BIOMETRICS RESEARCH QUESTION

QUESTIONs: Can hand-held, DIRECTED 

ENERGY (DE), COTS, spectroscopic 

technology discriminate a biometric data 

continuum between well and poorly 

preserved archaeological and forensic 

bone, teeth, and plant specimens? 

Can the biometric data/packet be NIST / 

DOD base lined, secured, and moved, 

without interference, and or modification? 

CURRENT ART / UTILITY: Chemical, 

radiometric, and genetic assays predicated 

on sufficient amounts of unaltered 

collagen, hydroxyapatite, or alkaloids in 

specimens, analyses, destructive, costly, 

and time-consuming,  improving.

Difficult to accomplish non-destructive or 

minimally destructive assessments of field 

specimens, in situ, prior to export to Lab.

GOAL: Enable rapid field analysis and 

tissue sparing assessments, for ID, reduce in 

situ disruption.

Pestle, W.J., and M. Colvard. Bone Collagen Preservation in the Tropics: A Case 

Study from Ancient Puerto Rico. Journal of Archaeological Science. Vol 39, I

ssue 7 (July, 2012), p. 2079-2090.
DE METHODS AND MATERIALS

• 4 handheld COTS spectroscopy 

devices:

– BWTek 785nm Raman InnoRam

– DeltaNu 785nm Raman PharmaID

– Thermo Scientific First Defender FTIR

– DeltaNu 1030nm Raman InspectoR

• 26 previously analyzed museum 

bone samples (100s-1000s of 

years old) and from a variety of 

geological settings:

– Ground bone

– Extracted hydroxyapatite

– Extracted collagen

• 3-5 scans per sample (depending 

on device/sample type) at 

automatically determined optimal 

acquisition time, multiple scans 

averaged.
SPECIMENS / RESULTS

Pestle and Colvard
Raw bone

Hydroxyapatite

Collagen

Thermo First Defender (Fourier Transform 

Infrared) FTIR Spectroscopy

Averages, all samples
Thoughts on Thermo FTIR results

• Strong signal from both raw bone and hydroxyapatite 

samples, collagen has much lower signal intensity, but 

still has several notable peaks in pure form.

• Both raw bone and hydroxyapatite show strong 

absorbance peaks at 960 and 1015-1 (phosphate), and 

carbonate peaks at 870-875, 1415, and 1450cm-1

• Collagen samples show Amide I peak at 1625-1650cm1, amide II at 1530-1540cm-1, and amide III at 1225-

1235cm-1

• HOWEVER, the signal intensity (absorbance) of the 

collagen samples is sow low as to be absolutely 

swamped in raw bone, meaning that this device is not 

immediately useful for the purposes envisioned here
Raw bone

Hydroxyapatite

Collagen

DeltaNu InspectoR 1030nm Raman

Averages, all samples
Thoughts on DeltaNu 1030nm

• Lower fluorescence than with 785nm Raman 

devices

• 960cm-1 peak in raw bone and hydroxyapatite 

scans consistent with v1 PO4 symmetric 

stretching, plus a carbonate substitution peak at 

1050-1100cm-1

• Most importantly, however, for the present 

purposes, is a very weak peak in the average 

collagen spectrum at 1440-1450cm-1, a location 

which is consistent with a CH2 bend or 

deformation consistent with Type I collagen, this 

is developed in greater detail below...
DeltaNu InspectoR 1030nm Raman, 

raw bone by collagen yield
DeltaNu 1030nm collagen content 

discrimination

• Breaking the raw bone samples into 3 groups (high, medium, and low 

collagen yield) produces an intriguing result, as the 1440-1450cm-1 peak 

is evident in the high yield samples, less so in the medium yield samples, 

and not detectable in the lowest yielding bone.

• This finding would suggest that the 1030nm Raman unit may be a 

feasible means for discriminating between those bones that have 

sufficient collagen and are thus worthwhile to sample and analyze and 

those that are devoid of enough collagen for study and worthwhile 

analyzing.

• Next steps: Biometrics and Cyber-Security standards

• Next steps: Additional Anthropological and Dental Forensic Education

• Next steps: optimize Directed Energy frequency / emissions / secure data

• Next steps: optimize EMR data movement to ADA/NIST/DOD standards.
REFERENCES

1. Onul A, Colvard MD, Paradise WA, Elseth KM, Vesper BJ, Gouvas E, Deliu Z, Garcia KD, Pestle WJ, Radosevich JA. Application of immunohistochemical staining to 

detect antigen destruction as a measure of tissue damage. J Histochem Cytochem. 2012 Sep;60(9):683-93. doi: 10.1369/0022155412452146. 

2. Cordell GA, Colvard MD. Natural Products and Traditional Medicine: Turning on a Paradigm. J Nat Prod. 2012 2012 Mar 23;75(3):514-25.

3. Pestle, W.J., and M. Colvard. Bone Collagen Preservation in the Tropics: A Case Study from Ancient Puerto Rico. Journal of Archaeological Science. Vol 39, Issue 7 

(July, 2012), p. 2079-2090.

4. Pierce JS, Lacey SE, Lippert JF, Lopez R, Franke JE, Colvard MD. An assessment of the occupational hazards related to medical lasers. J Occup Environ Med. 2011 

Nov;53(11):1302-9.

5. Paradise WA, Vesper BJ, Babich M., Colvard MD, Radosevich JA, Methods, Processes and Comparative Yield Economics for the Production of Antibodies and 

Recombinant Proteins. Immunology, Endocrine & Metabolic Agents in Medicinal Chemistry, 2011. 11:3, pp 199-219.

6. Colvard MD, Naiman M, Danziger L, Hanley L., Handheld directed energy sensor for environmental monitoring and clinician safety, Aviat Space Environ Med. 2010 

Jun;81(6):602-4.

7. Colvard MD, Cordell GA. Rationalizing the Study of Plants for the Treatment of Oral Pain. Current Chemical Biology, 2008, 2, 140-152.

8. Cordell GA, Colvard. MD., Natural products in a world out-of-balance. ARKIVOC 2007 (vii) 97-115.

9. Colvard, MD, Guest Editor: “Dentistry’s Role in Disaster Response”, Dental Clinics of North America: 2007, Elsevier.

10. Pestle W, Demel S, Colvard MD, and Pickering R. Skeletal Biology and Mortuary Practice at the Kubinski Site (11WI1186), a Middle Woodland ossuary. 2007, Illinois 

Archeology. 19:47-84.

11. Colvard MD, Naiman MI, Mata D, Cordell GA, Lampiris L. Disaster medicine training survey results for dental health providers in Illinois. J Am Dent Assoc. 2007 

Apr;138(4):519-24; quiz 536-7. 

12. Pestle W, Colvard MD, Petitte P. AMS dating of a recently rediscovered juvenile human mandible from Solutré, Sâone-et-Loire, France. 2006, PALEO. 18:285-291.

13. Colvard MD, Cordell GA, Villalobos R, Sancho G, Echeverri T, Pestle W, Perkowitz, KM, Michel J. Survey of medical ethnobotanicals for dental and oral medicine 

conditions and pathologies. 2006, J ETHNOPHARMACOL., 107:134-142. 

14. Colvard MD, Lampiris LN, Cordell GA, James J, Guay A, Lee M, Stokes CM, Scott G. The dental emergency responder: expanding the scope of dental practice. 2006, 

JADA, 137:468-473. 

15. Colvard MD, Ashrafi S, Alonge O, Cordell GA. Lamellar body abnormalities with smokeless tobacco. 2006, ORAL DISEASES, 12:343-348.

16. Cordell GA, Colvard MD. Some thoughts on the future of ethnopharmacology. 2005, J ETHNOPHARMACOL., 100:5-14. 

17. Alonge OK, Ashrafi SH, Colvard MD. Mitochondria volume densities in smokeless tobacco-treated hamster cheek pouch epithelium. 2003, ORAL DISEASES, 9:138-43.

18. Kuo P, Colvard MD. Laser applications in micro-gravity, aerospace and military operations; IN: Clayman L and Kuo P, Editors: (1997); Lasers in Maxillofacial Surgery 

and Dentistry. Thieme, Stuttgart.

19. Allen M, Gaddis, M, Garber D, Webb D, Kelly J, Colvard MD. A field medical system using a laser diode. 1995. NASA TECH BRIEFS / LASER TECH BRIEFS, 3a-4a. 20. 

20. Keipert A, Garber D, Colvard MD. Field medical laser system (FMLS) for USAF Special Forces Command. 1994. Phillips Laboratory, Air Force Material Command, 

Dayton, Ohio. AFMC # PL-TR-94-1053.

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