Airport officials today showed off new X-ray scanning machines they will use to screen more passengers with full-body imaging as called for by security advocates, a step that has alarmed civil libertarians.
The $170,000 machines made by a unit of OSI Systems Inc show guards images of passengers' bodies through their clothes, revealing any objects hidden beneath clothing.
Three to be activated on Monday at Boston's Logan International Airport will be the first of 150 the US Department of Homeland Security officials hope to deploy in the next few months using funds from last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus.
The agency aims to have 450 advanced scanners at airports by the end of the year.
US congressional leaders called for more full-body imaging after a Nigerian man was charged with trying to blow up a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day using explosives smuggled onboard in his underwear.
Officials in Boston, where two of the four airliners hijacked on September 11th, 2001, took off, said they asked to be the first to receive the machines, which the agency will also deploy soon in Chicago and Los Angeles, among other cities.
For some randomly selected passengers they will replace the ubiquitous metal detectors.
Passengers can choose a pat-down search instead, though in past tests nearly all preferred the imaging scanners, officials said.
Logan airport previously had tested another imaging machine made by L-3 Communications Holdings that analyzed natural "millimeter wave" energy radiated by travelers' bodies.
The new machines, made by Rapiscan Systems, a unit of OSI Systems, are known as "backscatter" machines and bounce low-energy X-rays off passengers.
Reuters