Ten airports running body scanners, more to follow

[thewayne]

They image through your clothes and show anything that might not be seen by a magnetometer scan. It shows your gender quite clearly, the article quotes someone as saying that they can see the drops of sweat on your back.

The scan images are deleted immediately after the scan, or so they say.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-06-05-bodyscan_N.htm

Some interesting comments on Slashdot: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/07/0042248

Comments

[silveradept]

Ah, wonderful. In lieu of an invasive random pat-down, we now have an invasive imaging technology. I can see this tech being adopted for CCTV everywhere.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

It won't work with CCTV, it requires an enclosed chamber. It's sort of a millimeter radar, so it has to have a controlled return.

[silveradept]

Could the range on it be extended out, in time, to cover a room, if not the great outdoors?

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. It seems to be a system that requires closed containment to get accurate imaging. I don't think you could have a sufficiently controlled environment outside of a closed chamber.

[silveradept]

Hrm. Okay, so not as much widespread appeal as I thought. Still, imaging chamber that has genital-level detail could be quite the interesting show if the pictures mysteriously got out or were intercepted. Do they need that kind of resolution to spot potential weapons?

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

It's sort of an all-or-nothing proposition. For it to look through clothes, it has genital resolution. Allegedly the images are automatically erased after either 24 hours or right after the person leaves the imaging chamber. They say that the system has already been modified to de-rez or obscure genitals and faces without losing the detection of hidden weapons. And theoretically the operator is in another room and cannot see the person in the imager, so maybe the perv factor is diminished.

[silveradept]

Okay. The potential perv factor mitigated, is this something that would actually do what the purported job of airport security is supposed to be, in screening passengers for potential weapons and problems? And would everyone who is supposed to get on the airplane be subjected to it?