People are always talking about how to invent a better mousetrap.
Local business executive Michael Leary thinks he and his technology team may have succeeded.
But their invention is probably better described as a "bank-robber trap."
Leary, a longtime North Andover financial planner, has switched gears and is now the CEO of a start-up called Axitar.
The company has a decidedly modern product — miniature particles that can be sprayed onto money and carry identifiying information about the bank. The particles, known as microbots, can be designed to carry serial numbers, bank logos and other identifiying information.
Axitar has designed a bank money drawer that has built-in sprayers that are activated by a teller when threatened by a robber.
At the press of an alarm button, the tiny spray nozzle heads silently shoot puffs of air and thousands of microbots onto the cash. Unbeknownst to the robber, because they are invisible, the microbots stick to every bill in the drawer.
But Axitar's trap doesn't stop there.
When the teller presses the panic button, a series of cameras tied into the Internet immediately go on high alert. An operations center run and managed by Axitar views the feed — in real time — from the bank, where they are able to see the robbery in progress. They can then transfer that live video feed to the local police departments, which now also have a view into the crime scene.
You'd think the robber would already be a sitting duck. But wait, there's more.
As he leaves the building, if he gets that far, a series of spray nozzles built into the door jam of every exit coat the robber with dye that is visible to the naked eye, since it is bright pink or some other garish color.
If, after all that, the robber still is able to get away and into his car, the invisible microbots go to work.
Not only are they on the money, but as cash is handled by the robber and his cohorts, the 'bots, as they are called, are passed from person to person, clinging to clothes, skin, car seats and floors, gloves, or any other surface, leaving a trail for the CSI team.
Equipped with a special laser, police detectives can scan the cash or the suspects and pick up signs of the 'bots. Viewed under a microscope, they will tell a story about where the cash is from.
Leary, who started with the company as an investor but who is now its CEO, said he is impressed by the versatility of the microbots, developed by a chemist working for the government who is so far an anonymous partner in the venture.
He said they can be used for a variety of applications, including security in banks, convenience stores and many other locations. The military is also interested in how the microbots can be used, as are other government agencies interested in tracking the flow of drug money around the world, for example.
"The technology banks have been using — the dye packs — are 30 years old," Leary said. "The problem is that the bad elements know ways around it."
Literature provided by Axitar indicates that dye bombs used by banks fail to deploy or are removed more than 63 percent of the time, while their product is 100 percent reliable.
Leary said the company was well-received during a recent American Bankers Association annual meeting, where executives could view the technology up close.
Banks were especially impressed by how the 'bots could be used in ATM machines. If someone tries to steal one of the machines, Leary said, an alarm is triggered, and the money is sprayed with the invisible 'bots, just as the Web-based security system kicks into action.
Law enforcement officials also like the technology, he said, but for more reasons than just the ease that the microbots can be used to trace stolen money and the people who stole it.
The company was conceived following the Columbine High School massacre by Dave Stanley, a Nashville, Tenn., video expert who realized that as the shooters were mowing down students and staff, the SWAT teams were sitting outside the building, trying to figure out what was going on inside.
"In the timeline of Columbine, most of the harm they carried out, they did so while the SWAT stood outside, with no idea who the assailants were, where they were, or what they were doing," Stanley said, adding that a similar problem happened years later at Virginia Tech.
In that massacre, the gunman shot one person and then, 91 minutes later, killed 31 more.
With the real-time video technology developed by Axitar, police would likely have been able to identify the shooter following the first incident, and possibly even arrested him before he could have created any more carnage.
At Columbine, Stanley said, if the school had been equipped with their video technology, police officers would have had eyes and ears inside the building. They would have known where the perpetrators were and what they were doing, and could have moved in more quickly to stop the violence.
With the technology developed by Axitar, a panic button in a classroom or on a cellphone could activate the security system, which would set off an alarm in the operations center, which would begin immediately monitoring the emergency and sending information to police.
In fact, Leary said, cell phones equipped with an application being developed by Axitar could be used to send real-time video information to police.
He said the implementation of their technology is much cheaper than traditional security systems because it uses existing equipment, simply digitizing it and transferring it to the Web.
Between the 'bots and the real-time video, not to mention the bright pink security spray, Leary thinks Axitar might have invented a better mousetrap.
His hope, he said, is to grow from a self-funded private company to a $500 million company in just three to five years.
"We could get pretty big pretty fast," Leary said.
