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T-Ray Camera Sees Through Clothes, Preserves Privacy

Posted by kdawson on from the so-they-say dept.

Quite a few readers are sending in stories about ThruVision's products, slated to be demonstrated in Britain next week, that are claimed to use Terahertz radiation ("T-rays") to detect foreign objects under clothing, without revealing body details, from a distance of 25 meters and while the subject is in motion. T-rays lie on the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and microwaves, and are the subject of lively research efforts worldwide. ThruVision says it developed its products in cooperation with the European Space Agency.

4 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. So.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    .... it detects foreign objects? a tampon? or only objects RIGHT under clothes? Cause we all seen news of drugs hidden inside human orifices.

  2. Re:Don't be silly by EdIII · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can top that :)

    20 Years ago I went on a plane with DYNAMITE baby!

    I was a kid, and all I wanted to do was to get some M80's and M160's back to my school for some good harmless fun. I stuck it in my desktop computer (no really), in a bag between the hard drives and the floppy disk where there was still 2x5 1/4 bays.

    I figured what is the worst they could do to a 12 year old?

    Of course.. now as an adult I realize that putting about 2 dozen firecrackers into the overhead compartment was just a little unwise.

  3. Re:Preserves privacy by Eivind · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Indeed. Some of us have the oposite priority even.

    I don't particularily care very much if someone gets a glimpse of me naked somehow. I look like an average 32 year old male, if that's someones particular thing, more power to them.

    I -DO- however strongly oppose massive registers being maintained about my every movement, with name and address, class I'm flying, how and when I paid for my ticket, if it's a return or single, where I booked it, how many pieces of luggage I checked in, who I'm traveling with, who I phoned the last 2 years and for how long we chatted, and and and and....

    Everything stored and collected in massive secret government-databases to be used for screening for "terrorists".

    What happened to presumption of innocense ? Since when is it okay to collect data on EVERYONE because SOME may be guilty ?

  4. Re:Don't be silly by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The argument is that the liquids they are afraid of are volatile and hard to contain in cans, and thus you would see condensation on the inside of the bag. Not all liquid explosives are volatile, but it helps. Anything with enough nitrogen content is able to be turned into an explosive, it's just a matter of how much work is involved for each compound.

    That being said, suffice it to say that I managed to get a can of lighter fluid on a plane, even after they put the restrictions on liquids in place. And I wasn't even trying to get it on the plane, it was just in a bag I was carrying and I didn't even think about. But apparently, it was missed by the screeners who were far more interested in stealing my bottles of Pantene and my can of Axe.

    --
    My blog