LOS ANGELES — Say goodbye to naked scanner images.
The Transportation Security Administration announced
Wednesday that it will begin installing software to allow airport
scanners to show objects hidden under the clothes of passengers without
creating what appears to be a naked digital image of the travelers.
The full-body scanners now operating at 78 airports
across the country use low levels of radiation to look through the
clothing of screened passengers to create an image that TSA officials
can view to find hidden weapons or contraband.
A software upgrade that the TSA has been testing in
airports in Las Vegas, Atlanta and Washington since February would
instead create a generic human form and indicate if the scanner detects a
hidden object under the clothing. The technology would also show the
TSA agents on what part of the body the object has been found.
As with the current system, if the scanner detects a
hidden object, TSA agents will perform additional screening. If nothing
is found, the scanner clears the passenger to move on.
“This software upgrade enables us to continue
providing a high level of security through advanced imaging technology
screening, while improving the passenger experience at checkpoints,” TSA
Administrator John Pistole said.
About half of the nation’s airport scanners rely on
electromagnetic waves, also known as “millimeter wave” technology, to
create the image. The other scanners use X-ray beams, in what is known
as “backscatter technology.”
The TSA plans to add the software in the coming
months to more than 200 millimeter wave scanners, with testing to begin
in the fall for the backscatter technology scanners.
———
(c) 2011, Los Angeles Times.
Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
