Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » Total Recall body scanner becomes reality

November 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)

Total Recall body scanner becomes reality

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Replete with a privacy algorithm to hide "the important [body] parts," no not your brain, the vice president of operations of SafeView, Karen Meyer, gave me the rundown on the Scout 100 and Scout 360 people scanners.

This baby is much closer to the scanner in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Total Recall than the current generation of two-dimensional x-ray scanners.

It is fast and because it produces a three dimensional image in one pass there is no need for a person to turn around and around for the scanner to image the entire body.

And unlike those dangerous x-rays these scanners emit 10,000 times less power than a cell phone.

How good is this technology?

Well, according to Meyer you could tape a memory stick to your inner thigh, my suggestion not hers, and because the Scout 360 takes a 360-degree view of your body, the scanner would most likely find it.

The Scout 100 only takes a 270-degree of your bod.

Although SafeView scanners are now in full production there aren't many deployed for the simple reason that the "logistics of managing security", says Meyer changes completely.

For example, with one of these babies you don't need to pat anyone down.

There are plenty of potential buyers including prisons, airports, border crossings, and even one company that is using it to scan employees as they leave work.

The scanner uses what is called “active millimeter wave scanning technology” which reflects objects off the skin and can do a scan in 1.4 seconds or about 400 people per hour.

The technology was developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Lab and licensed by SafeView.

Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on November 22, 2005 02:09 PM

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