UK looks at Qinetiq's millimeter wave imaging for bomb detection

We got an update on the state of the millimeter wave imaging technology being developed by "personal security" company Qinetiq a couple of months ago, and the latest word is that their small scanner for inspecting individuals and small groups will be ready to roll officially in August. Also, as a result of the recent London bombings, the UK government and police force are looking into adopting the scanners for detecting concealed bombs and weapons. A single scanning portal can handle snapping moving images that can "see" through a person's clothes at a rate of 500 people per hour. Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the UK government would begin testing the devices immediately upon their availability in August.

[narco @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Is that a bomb I detect, or are you just happy to see me?

Fishes,
narco.

[Hitesh Sawlani @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

VERY cool

[morgan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

#1, exactly what I thought ;)

[Tom @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

So, my work (huge bingo club) got evacuated tonight and the police turned up. Most amusing.

[jayarr_superstar @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

what if they are just honest people and they want to use a knife for say............ sushi reasons?

[joe @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

this was really invented as a device to see through peoples clothes

[waffa @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Is it like a camera is it portable that would be wierd if the police had those

[benhc911 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

i suddenly want to be police, investigating if those hot woman are terrorists indiscretly... lol

[Finished.Law.School @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Is that man carrying a dildo?

[-alex- @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

i see privacy issues uprising fromt his :

[Pat @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

#5 Human sushi is against the law tho....and you don't make fish sushi in public lol.

#7 If you look at the site. There are pictures. Its a large thing you stand in front of. For now at least...

#8 Sorry I already signed up.

#9 Yes....yes he is...we had to arrest him...

#10 If you are a suspected terrorist you have no rights. Therefore you get no privacy.

[Desiri @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

How long until this?

http://www.foxhome.com/schwarzenegger/movies/recall1aep.mov

[TPW @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

No one should ever have to look at me through one of those.

By the same token, I would likely die of shame if someone were to be viewing me with that. I'd be hunching through with my hands over my boobs and pubes and tin foil wrapped around my lumpy rump!

[diverguy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

#11 wow... so you are saying that everyone is a suspected terrorist and therefore has no rights?
they r ganna use this like a metal detector i'm guessing... not just some people, everyone would be checked....

i can see a few desperate horny guys willing to take that job just for the perks...lol

[__redruM @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

#11 "#10 If you are a suspected terrorist you have no rights. Therefore you get no privacy."

At 500 people an hour, everyone's a suspected terrorist. Now the minimum wage security guy can see 500 naked people an hour. So there is privacy and decency issues. And we won't be any safer.

[pfb @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

500 people per hour is useless for the London Underground (Tube). There's probably at least a few hundred people per train at rush hour and those train run every few minutes.

[patrick dodds @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Re: #17 - exactly right. 500 people every 2 minutes might work. You'd need several machines for some of the busiest stations I guess. How much a pop are they though? And would tube travellers have to pay for them and the staff?

[Asher @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

If I just hand them a bad photoshop image of myself can I just avoid this machine and call it even?

[Evan Evans @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Wow, just like in TOTAL RECALL.

#12, you got it!

[Ryan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Finding weapons? That's not the half of it...

Clearly from the picture - this screening device will be most useful in finding which people are in fact made of liquid metal, and have been sent back in time to assassinate John Connor.

[Vivian @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

When I first saw the picture, I thought that the guy on the right looked like a robot holding a knife. That's pretty cool technology anyways. I wish I could have something like that...

[LC @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

One way around the privacy issue is to have the image fed to an office and unviewable to the the screener on the floor. The person viewing would only see the enhanced image without seeing what the the person actually looks like. If they are carrying a weapon, they call down to the floor screener and security and detain the person. If they are clean they get to go through and keep their privacy.