Heathrow trial for ‘privacy friendly’ body scanners
05.09.11
Heathrow is introducing privacy-friendly body scanners that replace graphic images of the human torso with a cartoon-like picture. If the trial is successful, it could mean the end of metal detectors and full body searches, the Guardian reports.
The airport has launched a trial using millimetre-wave scanners that bounce electromagnetic waves, instead of x-ray beams, off a passenger's body. Passengers who set off metal detectors in Terminal 4 will be taken to the passenger-screening area, where they will be allowed to look at the scanner's image with security officers. If there is a suspicious package on the person, it will show up as a yellow box on a mannequin-like representation of the passenger's body.
Under previous trials at Heathrow and other UK airports, graphic images of passengers' bodies are viewed by security officials in an enclosed area. Ian Hutcheson, director of security at BAA, told the newspaper: ‘It will be effective security and a much better passenger experience.' BAA plans to use the new scanners in all its airports if the trial is successful.
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