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High-tech firm brings its expertise to Spotsylvania Date published: 10/25/2007
By PAMELA GOULD His forensic tool helped track down a letter bomber, a triple murderer and the killers of a Maryland state trooper, yet police agencies in the U.S. haven't rushed to become customers. Bob Moran, one of the inventors of LatentMaster, said he has been told his tool--which sells for $31,000--is too costly for the average police department and not costly enough for major law enforcement agencies. But he's undeterred. International law enforcement agencies have been thrilled to get the equipment, and he and his wife don't mind the overseas travel involved in demonstrating and selling it in places such as the Netherlands and Austria. LatentMaster combines custom-made software with a custom-equipped camera. It can detect fingerprints left at crime scenes that can't be obtained with traditional techniques. It can process them faster and without the risk of destroying evidence the way methods involving chemicals can. And it has the advantage of being able to enhance an image while maintaining the original. Plus, the software makes it impossible to change a print or tamper with evidence from a crime scene. "I won't be convicting any innocent people because I can't alter an image to make it match a suspect," Moran said. The tool, while valuable for solving crimes, isn't the most profitable of the inventions produced by Syntronics, a mechanical and electrical engineering firm that moved from King George County to Spotsylvania County in June. Syntronics, which started in January 2004, operates three divisions--forensics, guidance systems and night-vision systems. Buddy Lauer, who holds degrees in mechanical engineering, is the company's president and CEO. Moran, who has a degree in electrical engineering, is president of the forensics and guidance-systems divisions. Both previously worked as civilians for the Navy at Dahlgren. Currently, Syntronics has applied for patents for three of its inventions. "Most of the things we do haven't been done before," Lauer said. One of the patents is for hardware to detect aircraft on runways, developed for use by the Federal Aviation Administration, Lauer said. Syntronics' work has applications for the military, homeland security and commercial enterprises. Its engineers have designed items including flight data recorders as small as a quarter, perimeter sentry tools that can't be detected with night-vision goggles, and devices for inspecting high-voltage equipment. Besides the Army, Navy and FAA, customers have included companies such as Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, Lauer said. Syntronics built its office on Shannon Park Drive near Shannon Airport to have the right kind and amount of space for developing and testing the company's high-tech inventions, Lauer said. The nearly 3-acre parcel Syntronics bought also offers space for the company to triple in size, he said. syntronics.net Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972Email: pgould@freelancestar.com
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