



Michael Chertoff




Body scanner images





Jonathan Corbett
[Image Source: Jonathan Corbett/Mail Online]





Airport travellers
[Image Source: Corbis]

The TSA has refused to comment on these developments.

Video of the incident can be found here:





Comments     Threshold


"Relies on contrast"
By rs2 on 3/7/2012 6:26:48 PM , Rating: 5
I'm disappointed at encountering such a technical misstatement on a tech-themed news site. The machines themselves do not rely on contrast for anything. Only the visualization produced by the machine does that. In terms of the scanner itself, a metallic object will produce a distinct physical reading no matter where it is placed.

So the only real problem is that some idiot decided to make the color for "empty space" be exactly the same color as "solid object". If they just made the "solid object" color red or something (or the background light-blue, or whatever), then it would no longer be possible to defeat the machines this way.

Anyhow, I'm not defending the full body scanners, nor the culture of fear that led to their use. I think they're idiotic and I hope this guy succeeds in his lawsuit. However I don't like seeing technical inaccuracies, especially on a tech site. The flaw that was exploited is purely one of poor visualization, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the underlying scanner technology. It could, in fact, probably be fixed with a simple firmware update to existing machines to change how they visualize the data coming in off the scanner.

RE: "Relies on contrast"
By dark matter on 3/8/2012 7:06:49 AM , Rating: 2
The bigger idiot is the ones walking through the scanners.

You don't have to do what you're told to do. You do realise this. Technical aspects not withstanding.

RE: "Relies on contrast"
By Kurz on 3/8/2012 10:44:59 AM , Rating: 2
I will always asked to be pat down instead.
No need to see my small penis.

