TSA Begins Testing New Airport Scanners

"Millimeter Wave" Machine Uses Radio Waves, Not Radiation; Alternative To Pat-Downs

(CBS/AP)  The federal government is now testing a body-scanning machine that sees through travelers' clothing, as an alternative to hand searches by security officers.

Tests were scheduled to begin Thursday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport with passengers pulled out of the security line for secondary screening. Passengers may request the full-body scan - which blurs faces so the person being screened cannot be recognized - instead of the traditional pat-down used across the country.

"This way, they won't have to have anyone touch them, and they can get through the process very quickly," said Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Ellen Howe.

The new machine uses radio waves to detect foreign objects.

Officials are trying to determine if the body-scan machines are a more effective search tool than a pat-down. Both types of machines check for explosives, metal, plastic and liquids - anything hidden on the body, said Mike Golden, the Transportation Security Administration's chief technology officer.

The new type of device being tested, called a "millimeter wave" machine, doesn't use radiation, Golden said Wednesday during a demonstration for reporters at the agency's headquarters in Arlington, Va. Instead, it uses electromagnetic waves to create an image based on energy reflected from the body.

A similar machine, which does use X-ray radiation, will soon be tested at airports in New York and Los Angeles, reports CBS News correspondent Dan Raviv (audio).

Since February, the Phoenix airport has been testing a machine that uses so-called backscatter radiation to scan the entire body. The backscatter uses a narrow, low-intensity X-ray beam that scans the entire body at a high speed. The amount of radiation used during this scan is equal to 15 minutes of exposure to natural background radiation such as the sun's rays.

The non-radiation millimeter wave machine works like this: A person walks into a large portal - nearly 9 feet tall and 6 feet wide - pauses and lifts his arms while the machine takes two scans using radio waves. The scans take 1.8 seconds, and it takes about a minute for the image to appear on a computer screen in a separate location.

"You don't have to worry about being patted down, they don't have to have somebody there to pat you down. It'll save time, I think, if anything," traveler Mark Bongiovi told CBS News.

"Any time they can improve the process, make it more efficient for travelers, it's a good thing," said another traveler, Wendy Gilpin.

To protect privacy, the image will be shown on screens in a completely different area than where the screening is taking place. The TSA officer doing the screening will never see the computer image, and images will not be saved, TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said.

Reporters were only shown an example of a female body image, which was a three-dimensional image of a very fit woman in her brassiere and underwear. TSA describes this as similar to a "fuzzy photo negative."

Privacy advocates say the images are more graphic than that.

"If you want to see a naked body, this is a naked body," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's program on technology and liberty.

Steinhardt also received a demonstration of the new machine, which he says shows the same graphic image as the backscatters.

"I continue to believe that these are virtual strip searches," Steinhardt said. "If Playboy published them, there would be politicians out there saying they're pornographic."

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and the Alexandria, Va., federal courthouse use the millimeter wave machines, TSA said.

TSA purchased eight of the millimeter wave machines, which cost between $100,000 and $120,000, and is considering deploying them at John F. Kennedy and Los Angeles international airports during the testing period. The results of the testing will determine whether to use these machines for primary screening, Howe said.

[cdfoxtrot]

Considering the obesity levels in this country, I hope the operators of this equipment will be treated for the traumatic images they''ll have to endure.

[anne000]

I''d like to point out that they are in fact using raditation. Any part of the electromagnetic spectrum, including millimeter wavelength radio waves (and visible light for that mater) is radiation. I presume what they''re trying to say is that it does not have the potentially harmful effects that the wavelengths used in X-rays have (about a nanometer, which is a million times smaller), but saying it doesn''t use radiation is inaccurate.

[anne000]

I''d like to point out that they are in fact using raditation. Any part of the electromagnetic spectrum, including millimeter wavelength waves (and visible light for that mater) is radiation. I presume what they''re trying to say is that it does not have the potentially harmful effects that the wavelengths used in X-rays have (about a nanometer, which is a million times smaller), but saying it doesn''t use radiation is inaccurate.

[bareemperor]

They scan and scan - and yet I watch as hundreds of US Mail packages are quickly loaded unscanned right below me in the belly of the plane...

Need I remind you these boxes are packed by POSTAL EMPLOYEES....

[sharncedar]

Larry Craig could use a device like this.

[shanev137]

You can see everything on these images...and I mean everything. You might as well be standing naked in front of the TSA.

It continues to amuse me how the prudish, and the ACLU which I generally support, make such a fuss over being seen virtally naked on a screen. As a long term nudist, I would far prefer that air passengers be required to board nude. Nothing to hide that way! And just think how it would cut down on the traffic. What a way to get rid of those tiresome airport delays.

[barbaraf4]

"Are you that iq-less? It''''s a new technology to prevent problems like the subway bombings in England. This technology could have prevented that. But noooo, you would rather be complacent with terrorists knowing we won''''t use such technology to prevent these dispicable acts. Yeah, grow up!" Posted by blahblahbla5 at 02:40 PM : Oct 11, 2007

It doesn''t matter how good the technology is. Technology will not stop everything. There are no guarantees out there. All you can do is protect yourself and those you love. Personal responsibility, yes, that''s what growing up is all about. By the way, name-calling isn''t necessary.

[blahblahbla5]

Exactly how many facilities, airplains, subways, etc. have been saved with this intrusion into our lives?

This is like the joke about the guy beating his pool cue on the pool table. Someone asks him why - he answers that he is "keeping the elephants away." "Elephants? There are no elephants within a thousand miles from here." His answer, "See, it is working!"

-------------
Are you that iq-less? It''s a new technology to prevent problems like the subway bombings in England. This technology could have prevented that. But noooo, you would rather be complacent with terrorists knowing we won''t use such technology to prevent these dispicable acts. Yeah, grow up!

[barbaraf4]

"This technology is about preventing terrorists from from blowing up facilities, airplains, subways, etc and not about getting your rocks off. Grow up folks."
Posted by vbnvbn at 02:19 PM : Oct 11, 2007

Exactly how many facilities, airplains, subways, etc. have been saved with this intrusion into our lives?

This is like the joke about the guy beating his pool cue on the pool table. Someone asks him why - he answers that he is "keeping the elephants away." "Elephants? There are no elephants within a thousand miles from here." His answer, "See, it is working!"

[oleander8]

Yikes! This is going to upset my mother - I don''t even think my father has ever seen her naked!

[macusweil]

clear evidence the terrorists have won ~ let''s all fly naked

there has to be a better way to protect ourselves than letting the government listen in to all our phone calls, read our email and strip search everyone riding an airplane

[bcbeatty-2009]

Does this mean I can keep my shoes on?

[nathan8804-2009]

Is TSA stopping real threats? Yes! They stop people all the time that are still stupid enough to bring a gun in their suite case to the checkpoint. Along with mace, pepper spray and the like. They will always stop the yahoo hick with a weapon in his pocket. When it comes to a real terror threat I think they serve more as the dog with a loud bark with little bite. They are a deterrent more than anything else. Just as the troops in Iraq can''t stop the road side IED''s TSA is not equipped to stop them here until the public is willing to accept total loss of privacy at checkpoints.

[nathan8804-2009]

Having worked for TSA I can say they are not high school drop outs with little training. You have two types of TSA workers half veterans and the other half young kids either going to college or right out of high school. They get at least 3 weeks training before being turned loose on the public at a cost of about 20 grad per head. Then they have to complete about 10 hours of training a month because some fool told Congress thats what they get not what the really needed (thats a lot by any standard). Most of the confusion between airports and how they do things is caused by the policy changes that come down daily from TSA headquarters. In my opinion your SOP should not be changing every other day then expect good implementation across 429+ airports. Of course the public does not see, hear, or know this. As for the new screening device I think it would be a lot more effective than the current process. It should be left optional to a pat down. If you don''t like any of it Grey Hound is still running strong to a city near you!

[ewob2]

This is crazy, TSA actually paid for the x-ray glasses. What has TSA actuall accomplished? Confiscating a few pocket knives that most boys have been carrying since they were 13 to clean under their fingernails? Gallons of water?, soap? likely a small @ of drugs hidden in a hollowed out shoe? Now they will be obtaining invasivly, pornographic shots of common folk. I give it a couple of months before some show up on the ne. Cut their funding, disband the agency. Use the money to teach the alians (or Dell Techs) english. There has been no significant benefit for the existance of TSA, It has been a waste of time and money for limited or no results. Well maybe the spread of potentially infectious plantars warts, fungas etc from everyone taking off their shoes to walk through the metal detectors. I wonder if the CDC has considererd that one?

[myopinion3]

OMG, I so hope I am never having my monthly visitor when flying! I think this is a total violation of privacy and borderlines on the perverse. And I don''t care if the radiation is equivilant to 15 minutes in the sun... I don''t need ANY more exposure to radiation than I currently get! Ya know, they say we are not a communistic country, but Big Brother is getting way to big for his britches!

[jairod]

Make sure you have clean underwear on.

[newsreader2]

Where can I apply for this job?

Dirty middle-aged male

[barbaraf4]

My sister has a saying: "That''s the way it goes, first your money, then your clothes."

This whole TSA endeavor ranges from the ridiculous to the sublime. From one day to the next, you never know which you will get. This new one is a *serious* violation of privacy.

Aside from the idiot who tried to set his shoelaces on fire, all I have seen were the day to day stress reactions to being treated like dirt, forced to endure delays, forced to sit in over-crowded conditions for hours and being herded like cattle.

TSA first response personnel are high school dropouts who get 5 hours of training before being armed and turned loose on the public. They have unlimited power, but no insight about using it. No matter how many new instruments TSA gets (that we are paying for), the methods being used will never catch what they want to stop. If you know how to do it, your thumb can be used as a weapon, if you can kick high enough, your foot can be used as a weapon. These people are idiots on taypayer payroll.