Orlando, Fla.-based Brijot Imaging Systems shows a security scanner Wednesday at the International Security Conference West Show. Photo by John Gurzinski. Brijot Imaging Systems' Holly Strong demonstrates her company's wares at the International Security Conference West Show.

Whether you realize it or not, the tools to stop terrorism are toiling inside your town's stores, airports and office towers.

And as they guard against the likes of al-Qaida, modern security devices have become effective deterrents to shoplifting, smuggling and workplace violence, sources said at last week's International Security Conference West trade show.

Representatives of more than 900 exhibitors filled the Sands Expo and Convention Center with thousands of devices that years ago seemed better suited for Q, the gadget master from the James Bond movies, than John Q. Taxpayer.

These days, however, high-tech protection is big business, and countless players are vying for the chance to protect the places you live, work and play.

Booth after booth showcased upgraded surveillance cameras, superstrong fencing and high-tech identification badges.

Portable loudspeakers were there for the asking, adorned with "See, it really can happen to you" images of the World Trade Center wreckage and post-Katrina New Orleans.

Hitachi America offered devices that scan the veins inside fingers, which it calls a tamper-proof method of biometric identification.

Not far away, an Amherst, N.H.-based company called MobileRobots drew stares with PatrolBot, a $30,000 R2-D2 look-alike used by big companies such as Microsoft Corp., Pfizer and Hewlett-Packard.

Among those at ISC West was Brian Andrew, founder and president of Brijot Imaging Systems of Orlando, Fla. His company turns military technologies into products for everyday businesses.

Showgoers stopped and gawked as Andrew demonstrated BIS-WDS, which uses video cameras and beer-cooler-size radio telescopes to detect hidden weapons and explosives.

By focusing the devices on a specific area, say a doorway or hall, BIS-WDS's software automatically isolates handguns, knives or chemical explosives tucked beneath a shirt, pants or heavy coat.

In addition to protecting airports or subways from would-be suicide bombers, Andrew's product could help stadium owners prevent patrons from sneaking liquor bottles into a concert, or stop a dishonest bartender from pocketing a pricey bottle of liquor from a restaurant's storeroom.

"The operator doesn't have to stare at the screen and guess," Andrew said, highlighting on-screen images that clearly identified the various contraband.

And because BIS-WDS does not focus on human features, it eliminates concerns of racial profiling and uncomfortable pat-down searches.

"This is the nicest way to search somebody if they have to be searched," said Andrew, whose base model retails for $60,000.

Jonathan Fine, president of Las Vegas-based Sting Surveillance, said business-to-business sales will grow as executives adapt to modern security applications.

"We're two to three decades behind other countries because so many people are still using high mark-up, low-cost security solutions from 50 years ago," said Fine, whose 3-year-old business has grown from five employees at the start of last year to more than 50 today.

Using broadband connections to digital cameras, Fine said businesses can instantly transmit images of crimes in progress rather than waiting for a dial-up "panic" call.

Today's surveillance tools are storing detailed images for up to 90 days, thereby protecting against phony insurance claims and employee theft.

Sting Surveillance monitors several local Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf franchises owned by Fine's brother, Jeffrey. Its cameras have caught two phony slip-and-fall incidents, and a scam artist who falsely claimed a worker with an open wound served him coffee.

"That guy came in 30 days later," Jonathan Fine said. "The video showed the man took the coffee and threw it out without ever taking a drink. But he saw a bandage on the worker's hand and thought he had an opportunity" to extort a settlement.

Henry Laik, a director with Springfield, Mo.-based Digital Monitoring Products, said businesses are increasingly concerned with preventing workplace violence.

As a result, he said, "End-users are looking at controlling who goes into a building and at what time."

Identification badges and similar measures are often designed to keep the public out of private spaces. But companies such as Corvallis, Ore.-based Videx have developed products to prevent employees from entering areas they shouldn't.

Users of Videx's CyberAudit-Web Lite system can go online to program and monitor who is using its keys, and where those keys are being used.

For example, one employee's electronic key could be programmed to allow him into a store room, but only during regular business hours. His supervisor, however, may have a key that opens the same room at any time, but limits access to other areas of the workplace.

The software-based system can be easily updated to include new workers or changing responsibilities.

iOmniscient, a Sydney, Australia-based surveillance company, came to ISC West to promote IQ-Infinity, a video analysis software capable of counting vehicle traffic at an intersection to deterring vandalism and theft -- even in crowded areas.

The program can also detect unusual behavior; it can spot a pickpocket lurking in a mall parking lot or know when a nursing home patient has fallen behind closed doors.