| X-ray vision for TSA |
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| Written by Mark Nichols |
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Imagine for a moment that your job was to look at naked people all day long on a computer screen. While some might say, “No, that’s what I do in my off-hours,” TSA baggage screeners in US airports can now use that as an accurate job description. If you have investments in a company that makes metal detectors, you should call your broker immediately. Some airline passengers are skipping metal detectors and are instead being analyzed by body scanning machines. The devices make the dream of every eighth-grade schoolboy a reality – the machines essentially look through clothing for hidden weapons, and the images are pretty spectacular. An experimental program that began recently at Tulsa International Airport is testing whether or not the $170,000 body scanners could replace $10,000 metal detectors that have screened airline passengers since 1973. Airports in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami, Albuquerque and Salt Lake City will join the test in the next two months, TSA spokesman Christopher White said. While many say the $10,000 metal detectors did a fine job of keeping air travelers and airports safe, the new scanners will be even better at just 17 times the price. The scanners aim to close a loophole by finding non-metallic weapons such as plastic pens and credit card guns. But what’s really got people talking is the fact that while you don’t get to see any details, the images produced by the powerful x-ray machines reveal outlines of private body parts. For those modest flyers that may not be comfortable with 18-year-old kids checking out their penis or breast sizes, there is an alternative. Passengers at the program’s test airports will be instructed to go through the new scanners, but anyone who doesn’t want to go through will be allowed to refuse and instead go through a metal detector and receive a pat-down according to the TSA. People in the scanner will stand with their arms raised and their face will be blurred out in the metallic-looking image on a nearby screen. TSA screeners view the images from inside a closed room near a checkpoint and “immediately delete them.” “We’ve struck a very good balance between security and privacy,” a TSA spokesperson told the media. The scanners aim to address problems exposed by government probes in which covert agents got liquid explosives and detonators through airport checkpoints and in cases like the man arrested at Boston's Logan airport over the weekend for carrying weapons and explosives in his luggage on a commercial domestic flight. subscribeAdd this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites          Comments (0)
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