Studies for software optimization for gross counting portal monitors

After investigating several possible source-detection algorithms for gross-counting radiation portal monitors, a program has been developed to locate signals from weak radioactive sources in real time. By using a smoothing method of weighted moving averages and by including corrections for background suppression due to the presence of large vehicles as well as changing background levels, this program was capable of detecting significantly weaker sources than current software during testing. The limitations of this method are discussed.