Checkpoints and Borders Policy Debate - Scary Molecular Scanners in Airports Next Year?

Found this one via slashdot today.

http://gizmodo.com/5923980/the-secret-government-laser-that-instantly-knows-everything-about-you

Loved this quote:
"According to the undersecretary for science and technology of the Department of Homeland Security, this scanning technology will be ready within one to two years, which means you might start seeing them in airports as soon as 2013."

Wonder who the lobbyist is for this disaster.

Interesting. With how compact it is, they may be testing it in airports now...

Will it be able to sense that I'm 15 minutes later than I planned and am getting stressed because I'm not sure I'll get through security on time to catch my flight, but that I'm no threat to anyone except the DYKWIA who gets the last upgrade before me, so I'm safe to wave through security?

I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to a scanner that could tell everything about me if it really could and fast tracked me.

My fav quote:
The technology is so incredibly effective that, in November 2011, its inventors were subcontracted by In-Q-Tel to work with the US Department of Homeland Security.
Yeah, that's certainly MY definition of "effective" technology - they've convinced DHS to buy it. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Lots of stuff works on a small scale in a lab environment, but doesn't make the cut in a production setting. Examples (DHS/TSA alone has several) are left as an exercise for the student. ;)

Had a thread on this already. Claims like this typically end up being all PR with little physical technology to show for it. Plus, I don't think the TSA would support going for these. I mean, if a scanner can tell everything about you when you walk in the door, what use do all of their fancy machines and Thousands Standing Around have? Why should they remain?

I mean, if a scanner can tell everything about you when you walk in the door, what use do all of their fancy machines and Thousands Standing Around have? Why should they remain?

I dunno. Can the machine be programmed to yell "BRAVO!" at random intervals?

Seriously, though - didn't we see the same sorts of claims about the body scanners that we now know can be defeated with a needle, thread, and an Altoids box?

I have had some experience with this machine and it works tremendously well.

It was tested on me on my last trip to LAS.

One of the men there gave me a pat down while two others looked at the machine.

"My God," I heard one say to the other, "this guy has 'Phil' tattooed on his penis!"

As that is not my name, they suspected that there might be something wrong with the machine and decided to double check. This time, they had an attractive blonde do the pat down.

"No," the other screener said, "the tattoo does not say 'Phil'. It says, 'Let's go, Philadelphia Eagles!'"

Gee, and I thought the naked body scanners were bad..

http://www.naturalnews.com/030607_naked_body_scanners_radiation.html

The Genia Photonics' Picosecond Programmable Laser scanner is capable of detecting every tiny trace of any substance on your body, from specks of gunpowder to your adrenaline levels to a sugar-sized grain of cannabis to what you had for breakfast.

Ya right.

Good ol' TSA procurement process.

1) read manufacturer's sales pitch

2) discuss payoffs/connections (is Chertoff a board member?)

3) place full-scale order and install.

4) product testing begins

(It was at #4 that the puffers failed. IIRC, it was because they were high maintenance - or they didn't funcion well. Of course, the same TSOs that couldn't be trained to maintain the puffers apparently have no problem keeping the NoS calibrated and functioning properly. Some of them do still seem to be having problems keeping the cameras focused and running...)

If the product doesn't work, send it back to the warehouse, ask for expensive (da*n the cost - bill the taxpayers!) retrofits (BSX plus 'privacy screens), or fake usage to keep the contract going (dip strips).

Maybe a better idea would be for TSA to hand these out to all pax at the checkpoint. Sort of like 'see something, say something' (something that many TSOs don't seem to have mastered yet).

"If you see something suspicious, dip it. It's the American way."

"Have you dipped today"?

"Got dip?"

"The family that dips together, flies safely together."

"If you see something suspicious, dip it. It's the American way."

"Detonate In Place?"

Ya right.

and if so, can determine your recent sexual activity, and if linked to a database, with whom. perhaps.

Even IF the device were capable of this, there is no conceivable reason to allow such a massive invasion of privacy.

from the article: "It fires a laser to provide molecular-level feedback at distances of up to 50 meters in just picoseconds."

Given that it normally takes light roughly 3 nanoseconds to travel 1 meter I'm amazed that the device can somehow fire a laser beam through a 100 meter round trip plus analyze the return in only picoseconds. :confused:

from the article: "It fires a laser to provide molecular-level feedback at distances of up to 50 meters in just picoseconds."

Given that it normally takes light roughly 3 nanoseconds to travel 1 meter I'm amazed that the device can somehow fire a laser beam through a 100 meter round trip plus analyze the return in only picoseconds. :confused:

Add to that the fact that lasers have a wavelength more than a thousand times that of an atomic bond. You cannot determine chemical structures with lasers.

from the article: "It fires a laser to provide molecular-level feedback at distances of up to 50 meters in just picoseconds."

Given that it normally takes light roughly 3 nanoseconds to travel 1 meter I'm amazed that the device can somehow fire a laser beam through a 100 meter round trip plus analyze the return in only picoseconds. :confused:

Warp speed? :D

Add to that the fact that lasers have a wavelength more than a thousand times that of an atomic bond. You cannot determine chemical structures with lasers.

Spectroscopy is possible, but given unknown solvents or additional masking chemicals, difficult outside a laboratory environment.

Maybe I can sell them an automated mass spectrometer? @:-) They'll buy anything. Keeping it working within specs is another story.

from the article: "It fires a laser to provide molecular-level feedback at distances of up to 50 meters in just picoseconds."

Given that it normally takes light roughly 3 nanoseconds to travel 1 meter I'm amazed that the device can somehow fire a laser beam through a 100 meter round trip plus analyze the return in only picoseconds. :confused:


They don't say how many picoseconds.

They don't say how many picoseconds.

Agreed - anything under 29,999,999,999,999 picoseconds is still under half a minute :)

They don't say how many picoseconds.

I suppose you're right. I guess I should no longer complain about long wait times at the airport checkpoint. After all, I'm always through in just milliseconds!