All UK Airports To Install 3D Baggage Scanning Technology By 2022 (bbc.com) 19
"The UK government is requiring all major UK airports to introduce 3D baggage screening equipment before the end of 2022," writes Slashdot reader Hammeh.
The BBC reports: Ministers say the technology will boost security, speed up pre-boarding checks, and could end the restrictions on travelling with liquids and laptops. The equipment, similar to CT scanners used in hospitals, is already being installed at London's Heathrow Airport. It provides a clearer picture of a bag's contents, which staff can zoom in to and rotate for inspection.
Currently, passengers taking liquid in their cabin baggage are restricted to containers holding no more than 100ml, which must be shown to security staff in a single, transparent, resealable plastic bag of about 20cm (8in) x 20cm. The limits have been in place since November 2006. Their introduction ended a ban on liquids in the cabin imposed three months earlier, when British police said they had foiled a plot to blow up as many as 10 planes using explosives hidden in drinks bottles...
The technology is already being used by US airports, including Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson and Chicago's O'Hare.
The BBC reports: Ministers say the technology will boost security, speed up pre-boarding checks, and could end the restrictions on travelling with liquids and laptops. The equipment, similar to CT scanners used in hospitals, is already being installed at London's Heathrow Airport. It provides a clearer picture of a bag's contents, which staff can zoom in to and rotate for inspection.
Currently, passengers taking liquid in their cabin baggage are restricted to containers holding no more than 100ml, which must be shown to security staff in a single, transparent, resealable plastic bag of about 20cm (8in) x 20cm. The limits have been in place since November 2006. Their introduction ended a ban on liquids in the cabin imposed three months earlier, when British police said they had foiled a plot to blow up as many as 10 planes using explosives hidden in drinks bottles...
The technology is already being used by US airports, including Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson and Chicago's O'Hare.
Stats (Score:4, Interesting)
.
Which is a pretty good return on investment, in my opinion. I would pay US$1.20 to not have to sort or be limited by liquids. Let's see more of this.
Re: (Score:1)
handles about 80 million passengers per year
Heathrow will be lucky to get 80 passengers a year soon. I do wonder which tory donor has pushed this though. Just look for the one selling 3D baggage scanners I guess.
Re: (Score:1)
Able to detect all kinds of chemicals in 3D space.
Re:Stats (Score:4, Interesting)
not *everyone* travels with liquids
It's not just liquids. It's cameras, electronics, thin things at an awkward angle that make them look like knives, and you're missing the obvious: If you're by yourself without liquids, without electronics, without any hand luggage at all, you're still in a horrendous queue of people in front of you who are unpacking and repacking everything clogging up the security line.
So yes, *everyone* benefits from this.
Baggage Handlers (Score:2)
I wonder if the scanners will track the bags along their trajectory when leaving the paws of the human-gorilla hybrids in baggage handling...
It would be great to get hold of that data.
Baggage handlers worldwide can indirectly complete in the Olympic event of Suitcase/Hammer Throw.
I'm getting behind my local team at Manchester Airport, purely out of a desire to be in the winners enclosure.
Th8ckness (Score:2)
How would a 3D, catscan-like image of a bottle let them know the chemical composition of the mass inside? Can it tell thick liquid from a plastic explosive?
Re: (Score:2)
Probably not - but you'll get pulled aside for extra checks while everyone else continues to walk past.
Re: (Score:2)
How would a 3D, catscan-like image of a bottle let them know the chemical composition of the mass inside?
That's not the problem. The problem is liquid, glass and complicated electronics obscure the rest of the image.
Re: (Score:1)
3D scan of all baggage quickly detects hidden compositions.
Re: (Score:2)
Well let's look at some potential liquid explosives:
HTP (high test peroxide) is about 20% denser than water
Nitroglycerin is about 60% denser than water.
Nitromethane is about 15% denser than water
These materials also have a higher atomic number than water so they will absorb x-rays more efficiently. It should be possible to distinguish between passenger's drinks and these liquid explosives based on x-ray absorption data.
3-d scanning also makes X-ray masking almost impossible. The English pound coin is almos
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Heathrow is an incredibly shit airport. And don't worry they treat the natives like dirt too.
Re: (Score:2)
Heathrow is slow and seems to be designed to create delays, but I've been to worse. Paris Charles de Gaulle is a dreadful design, Lagos is a security nightmare, then there's one of the US airports where they use buses on stilts to move passengers around like something from the 1950's.
And don't get me started on the queues for immigration into the US, but I guess foreigners don't vote so they get even less rights than US nationals when entering the country.
Re: (Score:1)