Check out TSA's latest technology (backscatter)

youtube ^

[mack1998]

YouTube posting: Actual backscatter video footage from TSA. Images are exactly what Transportation Security Officers see.

Interesting technology.

Hasn't Europe been using this technology for years now?

[Third Order]

wristwatch and wedding ring not included

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Backscattering occurs in quite different physical situations. The incoming waves or particles can be deflected from their original direction by quite different mechanisms:

Rayleigh scattering of electromagnetic waves from small particles, diffuse reflection from large particles, or Mie scattering in the intermediate case, causing alpenglow and gegenschein, and showing up in weather radar;

inelastic collisions between electromagnetic waves and the transmitting medium (Brillouin scattering and Raman scattering, important in fiber optics, see below;

inelastic collisions between accelerated ions and a sample (Rutherford backscattering)

Bragg diffraction from crystals, used in inelastic scattering experiments (neutron backscattering, X-ray backscattering spectroscopy);
Compton scattering, used in Backscatter X-ray imaging.

[KDD]

[mack1998]

Thanks, Huntsville! Definately looks like the technology improves security. Would take a backscatter over a pat-down anyday.

[gaijin]

I do think they should use it, but it's a dishonest representation.

In fact, they can check out your private parts quite as easily as if you were totally disrobed.

If they say that the DUDES who use this are not going to reallly look forward to scanning chicks, well then that's just a damned lie.

It'll be a free STRIP PARLOR, no joke.

The representation whitewashed all this.

[centurion316]

Currently in use by the U.S. Military in Iraq and Afghanistan

[mack1998]

Had no idea, centurion316. Seems like the way of the future

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt sign me up as a screener lol!

[knews_hound]

Better yet, don't fly with Muslims at all.

http://knewshound.blogspot.com/2006/11/allahboard-us-airways.html

Cheers,

knewshound

[mack1998]

yah, but if you do have to get from point A to B, and gotta fly, this technology will address security, I suppose

[verum ago]

it looked hand drawn... nothing like the other back-scatter soft x-ray images I've seen... do a search on google image search... it honestly looks kinda fake compared to the other ones

[Lucas McCain]

What would probably work better, and be a great deal easier, is to require everyone that wants to board an airplane to eat one slice of bacon.

[CharlesWayneCT]

That's not a backscatter image, that's the picture they used when they were briefing on how the test was set up.

I looked but couldn't find the actual web site where they had that picture and two pictures that WERE actual backscatter pictures.

[mack1998]

Looks like it's the "privacy-filtered" image that appears on the backscatter monitor. There are a few other images on the Internet but not the "privacy-filtered" kind that will be on display for the screeners.

There's an interesting piece at http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061201005519&newsLang=en

Specifically, it reads: "The privacy-filtered image shows an outline of the passenger and outlines any potential threats on the person..."

[mack1998]

kdd, no idea where ya dug that up, but how about this instead?

[KDD]

no idea where ya dug that up

DC Comics ad...circa 1968. So many things we imagined during that time peroid have become reality..Think Star Trek ect.

We had no inkling that personal computers would be the norm in most homes in 30 years. Bill Gates is one of our generations Edison's.

[mack1998]

you're right. if this is the technology available today, what's in store 30 years from now?

[mack1998]

Interesting find -- American Science and Engineering, Inc.

Specifically, "The unfiltered Z® Backscatter™ images that have been associated with the SmartCheck personnel screening system and the TSA Backscatter Pilot are an incorrect depiction of the SmartCheck system’s images with privacy filtered software. The images widely distributed were taken in the 1990s and in 2003 with AS&E’s previous generation system, and these images do not have the privacy software that will be used by TSA during the Pilot Program...."

In fact, the image used by American Science and Engineering is:

For those who sped over to the Google image web site to disprove the "privacy-filtered" images, I'm sure Google will catch up. Still, in all fairness, technology has truly revolutionized the way we see things. Literally.