"Airport screening machines get smarter"

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Airport screening machines get smarter
By Laura Meckler
The Wall Street Journal


A gaping hole in airport security remains: how to detect explosives in
carry-on bags and on passengers themselves. Now, a host of new technologies
are being tested to close that gap. 

One of the most promising is a machine that has the ability to see through
clothing to find a hidden weapon. The problem with early versions of the
machine is that they show images of people as if they had no clothes on,
which sparked privacy concerns. Monday, American Science & Engineering
Inc. launched an X-ray machine that can see objects hidden beneath clothing
while obscuring private parts. The other leading manufacturer of the
machines also promises to cover up those parts of the image, though in a
different way.

An alternate technology, being tried in some airports now, shoots puffs of
air at passengers to detect traces of explosive residue. GE Security, a
subsidiary of General Electric Co., Monday unveiled a new machine that also
detects residue, but passengers put their fingers onto a pad instead of
being spritzed with air.

The moves are part of a highly competitive, rapidly unfolding race to deploy
the best technology for closing the security gap at airport checkpoints.

The security upgrades at American airports since 2001 have been significant,
including locking cockpit doors and reinforcing them with steel, and
deploying thousands of air marshals aboard flights. But, while all checked
luggage is now screened for explosives, people and bags that get carried on
generally aren't. Magnetometers that travelers walk through detect metal but
not weapons made of other materials. Similarly, carry-on luggage is X-rayed,
which will catch scissors or a knife but not necessarily a bomb.

The Transportation Security Administration is currently reviewing several
post-9/11 security guidelines that air travelers have grown to loathe:
removing shoes, taking off jackets, leaving behind cuticle scissors. How
much the agency relaxes these rules could in part depend on how confident
government officials are about the new machines' ability to guard airport
checkpoints. At Baltimore/Washington International Airport, for instance,
those who walk through an explosive-detection machine don't have to take
their shoes off for the metal detector.

"Our vision is for passengers to not have to remove their jacket, not have
to remove their shoes, not have to remove their laptop from their bag -- to
go through a checkpoint rapidly," said Dennis Cooke, president of GE
Security's Homeland Protection business.

The TSA has a long list of limitations it must work within. These include
everything from space at the checkpoints to cost concerns. The government is
focusing mostly on two types of technology, each with pluses and minuses.
The "puffer" detects the tiniest bit of explosive material on a traveler but
can't find a hidden weapon. The "backscatter," on the other hand, can see
through clothing to detect hidden bombs or guns, but creates the obvious
privacy concerns.

Puffers, officially called trace detection portals, are now being deployed
at two dozen airports around the country, including those in Las Vegas,
Baltimore/Washington, San Francisco, Phoenix and Tampa, Fla. They blow
several puffs of air on a traveler to shake loose particles that have
settled on the body and then analyze them for explosive residue.

"It's right out of 'Star Trek,' " says Natalie Koza, who walked through the
machine at BWI airport late last month. The 47-year-old State Department
employee, who was on her way to Egypt, was quickly cleared.

The machines, manufactured by GE and Smiths Detection, a subsidiary of
London-based Smiths Group PLC, cost about $150,000 each. The TSA has said it
anticipates deploying 100 more of them by January. GE's new technology,
called the Itemiser FX, which detects explosives as well as narcotics, costs
about $65,000 per machine and is portable.

The problem with these machines: While they are great at detecting
explosives, they won't find a hidden gun or knife. Backscatter, an X-ray
that sees under clothing, solves that problem. TSA is close to deploying
these machines in a handful of airports, including those in
Baltimore/Washington and San Francisco, to test their effectiveness. But the
backscatter creates another problem: It produces intimate pictures of
unsuspecting travelers.

"It really is a nude strip search," said Tim Sparapani at the American Civil
Liberties Union, which opposes their use.

In response, AS&E's new machine, called SmartCheck, creates an outline
of the person's body, along with an outline of hidden items. Rapiscan
Systems, the other manufacturer, has come up with a sliding scale where the
image starts to get fuzzier or more precise as needed. The companies promise
other protections: The people who screen the X-rays would sit in a remote
room where they can't see the people moving through security. The screeners
would all be of the same sex as the travelers and images won't be saved.

Clifford Wilke, chief technology officer for the federal TSA, says some
airports, particularly large ones, could wind up with both puffers and
backscatters. But others argue that having multiple machines would take up
too much space and keep passengers waiting too long.

Either the puffer or the backscatter is likely to improve on current
procedures. In most airports, travelers who are selected for further
screening -- either because their name is on a watch list or the metal
detector is set off when they walked through -- are subject to a physical
pat-down by a screener.

A test of the backscatter technology at London's Heathrow International
Airport suggested that hand pat-downs miss at least half of the prohibited
items hidden on travelers.

The Homeland Security Department's inspector general said in May that the
ability of TSA screeners to stop prohibited items being carried through
airports was no better than it had been in late 2001 and early 2002, before
the federal government took over screening. Experts say that's partly
because screeners are loathe to probe private parts of the body.

Technology to screen carry-on bags for explosives is even less advanced than
screening for people. One possible solution is to replace the existing
X-rays with CT scans now used on checked bags. A two-month preliminary test
of this technology was completed recently at Boston Logan International
Airport, and TSA hopes to begin formal lab testing next summer.

In the long term, technology companies envision a day when travelers don't
even have to walk through machines -- when sensors throughout the airport
scan people as they walk through hallways.

Closer to reality might be one machine that could handle all screening,
searching for metal and explosives alike. "Instead of walking through three
pieces of machinery, you walk through one," predicted Todd Haupli, a
lobbyist for airports. "We have finite resources as a country that we're
willing to throw at all this."

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