Transcipt of segment MSNBC's Rita Cosby Live & Direct

Interview Aired February 27, 2006

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We‘re joined now by Chris Gibson and his videoray robot, which is used to patrol our ports. 

You know, this robot, I‘m surprised, Chris.  I look at it.  It‘s pretty small.  How does it work? 

CHRIS GIBSON, VIDEORAY ROBOT OPERATOR:  Actually, it‘s eight pounds, Rita.  It‘s very easy to maneuver and very easy to deploy.  It‘s called a remotely operated robot or vehicle, as it‘s called in our industry, and it‘s used to protect our ports and underwater waterways.

COSBY:  You know, we‘re looking at some pictures of it underwater in action.  How long does it take to sort of survey—what is it, boats, is it ports, is it a combination of things? 

GIBSON:  Well, it‘s actually a combination of things.  Usually, in a port environment, the water is very contaminated and the operators are going to use it to sweep a pier to make sure that there‘s no foreign objects, make sure that there‘s nothing that‘s not supposed to be there.  And it‘s going to be used to inspect the bottom of ship hulls, not only the bottom of the ship hull, but also, you know, bow thrusters.  We‘ll actually go into the bow thrusters and check the running gear, as well. 

COSBY:  And what is it looking for?  Is it looking for, you know, chemicals?  Is it looking for an explosive device?  What type of things can it detect? 

GIBSON:  Well, it can detect almost anything.  Now, depending on the water clarity—the unit that I have here actually has a sonar on it.  And because of the water clarity in the ports, and usually because of contaminated water, you can‘t see very far.  You can barely see your hand in front of your face. 

So you use the sonar to acoustically give us a graphical representation of the water that‘s around us, and can detects mines on the ship hull, and it can detect contraband on the bottom of the ships, as well as inside the ballast tanks inside ships. 

COSBY:  And what kind of track record—what has it discovered?  Has it found anything in all of its searches that it‘s been used for?

GIBSON:  It‘s found quite a bit of stuff.  Most of the stuff I‘m not privy to talk about because it‘s been classified by the people that use the videoray. 

COSBY:  You know, and there was a classified Navy exercise, which you can sort of talk in broad terms.  It kept, what, SEALs from infiltrating a target, right?  Explain sort of how it has been able to be very helpful.

GIBSON:  Well, basically, our military does exercises all the time.  One of the exercises that it performed—while I can‘t go into details about it, like you said, because it‘s classified—Navy SEALs were given an objective to infiltrate a port.  And videoray, as well as other underwater technologies, were used to thwart that exercise.  And the SEALs were not able to accomplish their objective because of the videoray and other underwater technology. 

COSBY:  You know, and this device, I understand, has also been used in the search for Natalee Holloway.  Explain that, which is pretty incredible, for secures ports to Natalee Holloway. 

GIBSON:  It‘s actually used for quite a bit of things.  It was used in Aruba.  We were asked to come down by Texas EquuSearch to investigate some underwater targets that they had identified as possible places that they wanted to clear.  And videoray was actually able to go in and perform sweeps—it actually performed a sweep along in a cave area, as well as a bridge area. 

COSBY:  Incredible stuff, Chris.  Thank you very much for bringing this to us.  And amazing to see this technology in action there.  We appreciate you bringing videoray with you for tonight.  Thank you very much. 

GIBSON:  Thank you.

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