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Backscatter X-Rays Coming to Airports
TSMABob writes "Wired News reports that a recent, but expensive, technology of backscatter may grace airport security in the future. Nice Bombs Ya Got There is an article that explains how this technology is far superior to the metal detectors of today, pointing out that 'Richard Reid, convicted of trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives in his shoes, walked through metal detectors at Orly Airport in Paris several times before boarding the plane.'
Read More about backscatter x-rays and their ability to pick up non-metallic objects."
Yeah yeah, I know its going to be repeated at least 300 times in this story... but I just can't help myself.
/.'ing.
X-RAY VISION IS FINALLY A REALITY!!!
That is all, you may now go back to your regularly scheduled
"Engineers do the work of man, Physicists do the work of God"
There's another new article on this in the 'Globe and Mail'. It's a bit more indepth, and features a really, er, 'nice' picture of a seemingly shaven lady testing out the machine.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
You know, maybe this will get me through the airport a little quicker. But then again, maybe it'll just add up on the delays. How so, you wonder? Consider the current climate in airport security. Not only will the person itself be under much scrutiny in the event of, say, a PDA left in a breast pocket (could be hard to discern from a block of C-4), but I'm sure the person will be delayed even further by background checks and such.
This technology doesn't seem it will replace traditional X-ray, as I'm sure people will still (as gross as it sounds) be smuggling drugs and evil nanotech warriors in plastic baggies in their...rectums? (que AC goatse man reply)
I certainly hope I don't end up getting skin cancer or something, but then again, I'm paranoid, right?
-
And the Angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots! The cries of the carrots!"
Anyone else notice her lack of nipples? Were they censored away? Or did the SCO and Amazon.com jointly patent X-Ray pr0n®?
Totally Life!
ALL replies
Aside from the rather titilating views that these folks will be getting I am wondering about the health risks that constant bombardment of X-rays to frequent flyers. What about kids, infants and pregnant women?
Man, perhaps purchasing that new Cessna Skylane is getting more attractive.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
More pictures.
More detail as to how the machine works.
Except Richard Reid had the explosives in his shoes .
Are these scatter rays going to show shoes as well? The photo they have shown misses the feet!
This seems very, very close to the security system they had in Total Recall!
if they just put the monitor in a curtained-off booth, that'd be enough privacy for me. hell, i have less privacy when i try on pants at the store. like i care if they can see my junk.
they have the authority to strip search you on nothing more than a hunch - so how different is this really?
i do remember reading an article talking about this some time back and they were thinking of using a computer generated genderless wireframe and then transfer any hits from the backscatter onto that image, instead of showing the viewer the actual person in the scanner.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
I've been waiting for the day to come when I can just walk around naked in public...this machine, with it's ability to render the covering of clothing worthless, is a step in the right direction!
Here's a link to a company, AS-E, who manufactures some of the most respected Backscatter equipment.
For a sample of some slightly frightening pictures check out these images:
http://www.as-e.com/technology/image_1.html
If somebody has time, it might be good to provide a mirror for these images.
... imagine Natalie Portman behind a Beowulf cluster of these things!
How long before the police decide to use the mobile version of this technology to start looking inside people's homes and cars?
:)
:)
Already where I come from (Wales, UK) the local police use helecopters with an infrared camera to fly over houses, searching for high heat output, the reason being it 'aids and assists in catching people growing cannabis in lofts and attics'.
What is the next step with this technology? It offends me that a government official can soon be able to drive up outside my house, and literally look inside it, to see how many people are in my house, what kinds of material possesions I have, etc etc.
Saying that, however, I do not think this is going to catch on in airports, especially in the USA
Face it, more than 70% of American middle aged women are going to walk though, just to have the official ask her 'Please could you lift up your sagging stomach fat, so we can see if you have a huge bomb hidden under the rolls of fat'.
I just wish I was there to see the reactions
______
Jaylen
Since the Xrays bounce OFF of the skin and do not go through it, it shouldn't be a hazard. Also, you are only bombarded for a second or two. Even for frequent flyers, a couple of seconds a week should not hurt anybody.
Truly an amazing technology. How long before contraband starts getting tucked in various bodily folds and crevices, and overweight travelers have to get pulled aside for special inspection?
When fat people are naked in the airport, the terrorists will have won.
Yet another option would be to make the screeners sit naked while at work, thus making embarrassment mutual.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
... then we'll know for sure now if those breasts are real or fake!
Four weeks, Twenty papers, that's two dollars
Girls Gone Wild - Airport style.
This is the end of the line when it comes to privacy violations. This is where I stand up and say, I'm not getting on a fscking plane if someone's going to be sitting in a booth at the security checkpoint looking at me naked. If that's not a terrible invasion of privacy, THEN NOTHING IS.
What is privacy anyway? Does anyone remember? Anyone?
Mod Points: Helping you keep your opinion to yourself.
It would be nice if such machines detected the explosives by their electro-magnetic frequency signature or the like instead of human-based image recognition.
Another approach would be to use automated image recognition. The machine would hilite only suspicious spots, which the guards then inspect further. That way they don't have to see your whole body.
Table-ized A.I.
From the example pictures it seems that this still won't be able to detect items that have been put in some of the body's natural "hiding places." I really doubt someone that is willing to die to blow up an airliner full of passengers is going to have any scruples about doing something like that.
On the other hand, it's also possible to do that when you're just being checked out with metal detectors.
I think I'm having a Total Recall.
"It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it."
You *KNOW* it's only a matter of time before Larry Flynt or the latest celebrity pr0n site manages to get someone hired at LAX. Have someone taping the scanner line in RL, have the backscatter on a second feed, and this is all you need for verification that the backscatter pr0n is legit. Most of the more dubious websites will probably bypass the rl feed and try to pass the images off as celebs.
I'm not sure about the 3dPoseur look of the images and they don't do anything for me, but I think it'd be interesting to see what kind of person applies for this job.. Voyeurs?
The name backscatter is completely wrong.. It sounds like a Peter North film andways...
Another thing - Ever seen Spinal Tap? The airport security gate/cucumber scene comes to mind here....
B
FYI: Wired says that the amount of radiation
From Scientific American:
"A close second [in the stupid-security contest] was submitted by a guy whose story starts as he is about to board a plane in San Francisco. "The polite inspector informed me that he had to check my shoes for explosives. I dutifully removed them and handed them to him. He picked them up one by one and slammed them down on the floor with full force. Apparently, as they hadn't exploded, they were not dangerous, and he handed them back to me." Perhaps it's best to look on the bright side and simply applaud any public display of the scientific method."
Table-ized A.I.
There are two reasons why the public will reject this:
See the Pictures of the Flood of '08
My fear is that this type of technology will make the underpaid, overworked, and barely skilled security workers even more complacent.
Last weekend I took a trip to see my new neice. I brought along a few presents. At the last minute, the airline cancelled the flight and put me on a different flight, on a different airline. Fine.
Only problem is, since I changed flights at the last minute, even though it wasn't my decision, I got the extra-special anal-probe screening, which included, of course, opening all the presents that had JUST PASSED THROUGH AN X-RAY MACHINE. I swore there and then that I was done. If I can't drive there in my car in 8 hours, I don't need to go there. This just cements the deal. This is YOUR GOVERNMENT performing unreasonable random searches on you and interfering with free travel now, friends.
The AS&E BodySearch unit is huge. It's about 12 feet high, and costs about $1 million. The technology needs a redesign for production. Another generation or two, and it might be widely used. The X-ray exposure is surprisingly low, although well above background, of course.
In a few years, we might see them in nightclubs.
READ, dammit! It is the same radiation as sunshine. Are you afraid to go outside too?
I can see all sorts of messages one can put on their body with reflective paint for all those scanner operators to see.
Only x posts and slashdotted! Must be running their site on product "A".
...
Imagine a beowolf cluster of item "B", on a "C".
Just wait till the RIAA hears about this! and/or Just wait till the MPAA sees this! and/or Just wait till the **AA hears and/or sees this!
Something SCO would do....Or Sue! Sue! call SCO
BSD is dying, only a few million users left!
Oh and MS knows security like they know open competition.
I used Mozilla once!
1. Action "D"
2. ???
3. Result "E"
MS sucks. or MSFT sucks. or Microsoft sucks. or Micro$oft sucks or Micro$loth sucks.
Linux has a far superior kitch factor.
I'm going to patent patenting. I'm going to patent the wheel, air, fire, water, item "F". Quick hide it from bezos.
I'm going to sue for violating my first post (patent|copyright).
Check my l33t signature!
Accomplishing goal L: Cost "G". Accomplishing goal M: Cost "H", for everything else there is item "I".
Something, something, something, private part [giggle like the school child you are], something, something, something.
something, other, something, Natalie Portman, something
Boochicka wowwow, something, hot grits and person "J", who may or not be Natalie Portman
Some guys widespread anus [goatse.cx]
In Soviet Russia, Item "J" does "K" to YOU!
Apple R0xx0rs!
Apple Sucks!
Kde!
Gnome!
Amigas aren't dead!
Polling:
[options a-g]
h. [unable to participate] you insensitive clod!
i. [cowboy neal poll option]
all your "L" are belong to "M"
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
OMG! My skin is going to be exposed to the same dosage of radiation that heats our solar system!
Honk if you're horny.
Hmmm. Maybe there is a market for boner detectors. If we have to undergo scrutiny, then so do the guards.
"(beep beep) Well, it looks like ol' Bob is going to be suspended again. I bet his wife tossed his porn again so that he can't empty out before work. Sad."
Table-ized A.I.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"Deep Thoughts...by Jack Handey
At first I thought, if I were Superman, a perfect secret identity would be "Clark Kent, Dentist," because you could save money on tooth X-rays. But then I thought, if a patient said, "How's my back tooth?" and you just looked at it with your X-ray vision and said, "Oh it's okay," then the patient would probably say, "Aren't you going to take an X-ray, stupid?" and you'd say, "Aw screw you, get outta here," and then he probably wouldn't even pay his bill.
-
And the Angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots! The cries of the carrots!"
In the terminator series- soon to be expanded to its fourth installment- time travel only works on naked bodies. I am amused to think that we may have to esort to this for ultimate security.
Even so, when you read about smuggling in prisons and elsewhere, there's alot you can hide inside a body.
Is where all baggage is checked, and passengers, flight attendants, and pilots must fly entirely in the buff. Call it "bare skin" airlines. The only remaining problem would be that of beligerent naked kung-fu masters on board.
My rights don't need management.
As a pre-op transsexual woman, use of such devices will guarantee that I'm not going to fly. Those transsexuals that fly now and are obviously trans are frequently subjected to strip searches, verbal harassment, and other abuse. I haven't had to deal with it because it's hard to tell with me - unless you have the ability to see certain parts of me naked.
Well, now the screeners can see everything. Meaning I'll have to worry about someone seeing something unexpected about me, and use that as an excuse to harass me.
This surely seems like an unfair violation of my privacy. After all, why should what's between my legs be their business?
[scientific-musing]
The hullabaloo over this and similar devices is that they render the person under inspection apparently naked. This is an understandable objection. It seems, to my naive viewpoint, it would not be so difficult to computationally manipulate the image to remove the body, and leave everything else. After all, airport security (TSA in the US) is supposed to only care about things that are not the body. I've seen MRI scans which have been manipulated to, eg, peel the skull away from the brain, so I cannot imagine that it would be difficult to remove the pseudo-naked body from the data before they are displayed.
[/scientific-musing]
[privacy-rant]
I hate the idea of these and similar technologies which allow semi-secret observation of the populace without court order. Forget the tinfoil hat, you'll have to wrap your entire body in foil now!
[/privacy-rant]
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Why? Because x-rays have been proven to be dangerous to living matter at high levels.
No, this way they don't waste time having you walk through the metal detector multiple times as you remove objects from your person. Plus they can check and make sure nothing is being smuggled in with your objects that could be considered banned (explosives, shivs, handmade guns, etc)
Rant On
Personally I think people need to get over the whole "they will see you naked bit" whoopdedoo, I have a penis so does 49%+/-1% of the population.
Sure it is an invasion of privacy but if you want to get somewhere fast, concessions should be made.
Rant Off
I'm pulling this out of my ass, ...
and now we have the photos to prove it!
Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
"Does this X-ray make my ass look fat?"
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Security Guard: "Wow, that Commander Taco really DOES carry a roll of quarters in his front pocket!"
So it seems to me that the main thing that makes people modest, eg. not stripping naked and running around campus, is the fact that people will know it was you and you have to talk to them afterwards. The same is probably true of this machine, ie. people assume that the operator would see you before and after you walk through, and you might feel embarassed about beeing seen that way.
But just suppose for a second, that the operator of the x-ray vision machine is in a totally isolated room, and sees only the image of the person walking through the machine with no face shown, and doesn't get to see the person before or after. Wouldn't this eliminate the privacy problem? After all, if no one knows who you were individually walking through the machine, how are you to feel violated?
I personally would be ok with that kind of setup. Would you?
I remember hearing some airlines setting up special lanes for VIPs, a.k.a. rich people, to pass through the security checkpoints faster. So as these backscatter checkpoints start showing up in airports, will the rich and famous wiggle their way out of having to walk through these things? Is it fair?
On one hand, I'd have to say that well off people rarely blowup the planes that they are riding on. On the other hand, money can buy a lot of things. Can you really trust someone because they have paid for VIP privileges?
I for one don't think it should an option to buy your way out of a security scan that "everyone" is required to go through.
Life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. -FB
they have the authority to strip search you on nothing more than a hunch - so how different is this really?
It's this very attitude of resignation and complacency that feeds the authority machine that breeds more intrusiveness into our lives. We've been sold on the idea that to submit to egregious violations of our person, we are somehow more "patriotic" than someone who has very real issues with this type of technology.
The fact that some bad apples will press the boundaries of decency is the price one pays to live in a free society. We, however, are slowly morphing into an authoritarian society. The bright side? Fewer places for bad apples to hide. The down side? Instead of the people in control of the government, the government will be in control of the people.
Which do you prefer?