One Las Vegas resort and casino is stepping up security measures to keep its guests safe by implementing new radar technology. The Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino will begin using new scans, known as Patscans, to covertly detect prohibited firearms and other weapons from being brought onto its premises.

The new technology, created by a security company from Canada, uses microwaves (not the device that heats up food) to scan an individual to see if they are carrying a firearm, knife, or other weapons.

Here’s more from Wired:

Marketed by Canadian security outfit PatriotOne, the Patscan CMR combines short-range radar with machine learning algorithms to scan individual guests for guns, knives, and bombs in real time—without forcing them to line up and walk through metal detectors. And unlike the giant, whole-body scanners you see in places like airports, Patscan units are small enough to hide inside existing infrastructure, from walls and doorways to turnstiles and elevator banks. Most people will never realize they’re there—and that’s exactly how Westgate wants it.

As Wired also reports, the scans have a range of two meters, about six and a half feet. If the Patscan CMRs were located inside the front desk of a casino or hotel lobby, the devices would scan the individual before they would be able to hit the slot machine, play a game of poker, or gain access to their room. Casino and hotel staff would be alerted about the weapons and would be able to contact the property authorities.

When the device scans an individual, it can detect what objects a person is carrying based on the frequency that they give off when the microwaves bounce off of them. Wired explains:

Each radar unit consists of a service box and two antennae (the combined footprint is about the size of a movie poster). The first antenna emits 1,000 pulses of electromagnetic radiation per second, at frequencies between 500 MHz and 5 Ghz. Yes, that frequency range makes these microwaves, and no, they’re not going to cook anybody; to keep them from interfering with cell phones and GPS devices, Patscans generate a very weak signal. That also limits their detection range to about two meters.

The second antenna monitors for electromagnetic patterns inside that two-meter range. When you hit an object with electromagnetic radiation, it resonates according to its shape and material composition, not unlike a bell or a guitar string. Pistols, grenades, rifles, knives, machetes, machine guns, pressure-cooker bombs—they all resonate in the frequency range that Patscan emits.

…

PatriotOne maintains a growing database of known radar signatures, which Patscan’s onboard computer uses to distinguish weapons from benign objects and notify security personnel.

Nevada is a state that allows gun owners to conceal and open carry. In fact, according to Nevadacarry.org, Nevadans can conceal and open carry in a casino. If a gun owner is at a bar, they can also open carry or conceal carry as long as their blood alcohol concentration is less than .10.

However, a casino does have the authority to prevent guests from carrying in their casinos. They can ask guests to leave or even take the individual’s firearm while they are there. It is not a crime to carry into a casino, but if a person refuses to leave after being told to do so, they can face charges of trespassing.

This security measure comes two months after the Las Vegas shooting, where a shooter opened fire on concertgoers from his hotel room window in the Mandalay Bay. The shooting resulted in the deaths of 58 people and injured more than 500 others.

Will we start seeing other resorts and casinos start implementing the Patscan CMR?