Patent ID: 7119682

Claim:
A facility for crowd screening and protection configured for monitoring a plurality of individuals walking through the facility, and for detecting prohibited articles and substances carried by an individual of the plurality of individuals, comprising: a laterally-fenced walkway (FW) having an FW entrance open at a first upstream end, and an FW exit open at a second downstream end of the fenced walkway, compelling individuals to walk in single line queue over the fenced walkway, a confinement structure (CS) having a CS interior separated from a CS exterior by a peripheral wall accommodating an open CS entrance opening adjacent the FW exit, and an open CS exit opening, the facility being configured for permitting passage of individuals, solely from the FW entrance to the CS exit opening, via the FW exit and the CS entrance opening, at least one one-way passage control device, disposed in the CS interior, operable in a first passage mode for permitting free-passage of an individual, and in a second releasable locked mode for releasably confining a single individual at a time to the CS interior, a monitoring unit (MU) configured for management, control, and operation of the facility, including: at least one sensor operative which monitors each individual passing through the facility, to detect prohibited articles, a processing device which derives results in real time from the monitoring of individuals performed by the at least one sensor, and a controller which controls operation of the at least one passage control device, whereby the at least one passage control device is releasably locked by command when prohibited articles and substances carried by an individual are detected by the monitoring unit, the confinement structure further comprising: an open CS top opening configured in the confinement structure for exhaust of an explosion blast resulting from an explosion initiated in the CS interior, and a CS bottom opposite the CS top opening, and coupled to the CS peripheral wall which is appropriately reinforced to sustain an explosion, whereby when an explosion is initiated in the CS interior, the CS bottom and the CS peripheral wall confine the explosion while the CS entrance opening, the CS exit opening, and the CS top opening allow escape of the explosion blast, and whereby damage from the explosion to the surroundings is mitigated.