realjd

No self-respecting software engineer would deliver a system that didn't meet the requirements. L3 is very upfront about the fact that the machines are capable of storing images, but they disabled it when delivered to the TSA. I don't trust TSA but I do trust that the engineers did their jobs.

It's not "obscuring" the naked image, it's running image processing algorithms on it to detect anomalies then highlighting that body part on a stick figure. The stick figure is a generic cartoon, not a blurred version of the original image data or something like that.

nachtnebel

As long as the raw data from the scan is not stored or transmitted, and there is no other software on the machines capable of processing that incoming data into an image, the stick figure rendering for these mmw ATRs is a huge step forward. I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, but it looks to be pretty analogous to the WTMD wrt invasivity, provided the safeguards I mentioned were followed.

The false negatives yeah, that's an issue. You'd hope they'd use WMTD as well. My strong doubts on this are the false positives and the resolution steps that attend them. No one should get their groins pawed, NO ONE, because of feminine hygiene products, or their breasts felt because of surgeries, etc. The whole issue remains the false positive because of the limits of those machines. I suspect you'd need tiers of trust to help with this.

LeapingFrogs

Oh no, trust me I know... I saw the "test" version on the news back in October/November 2010. The particular screening picture I saw was at SEA, the clerk was sitting in her booth ogling images on a Dell laptop running Windows 7 (the news blured out the screen when the nudie picture popped up). I'd really like to find that original clip (I think it ran on King5, possibly Komo7) from the news, because they showed the clerk toggling between the two images unless my memory is totally swiss cheese. I just remembered being particularly horrified that they'd think it was a viable option.

The clerk at the time of the filming of the segment was screening live passengers.

VH-RMD

so, how many clerks will they get rid of as result of doing away with the peep show booth?

(a rhetorical question - feel free to ignore)

travfar

In Europe, I went though a system that was just as this is described over a year ago. You go through, there's a little screen there that you watch with the officer. Man, the US is so behind the times.

sheneh

The scanners and patdowns go hand-in-hand, so as long as the patdowns don't change support for scanners is support for patdowns.

Another reason to opt out is that if you are subject to a false positive near a "sensitive area" that area is likely to be groped more thoroughly than it might be in the absence of an alarm to resolve.

I still find the machines creepy and humiliating. I think it's still invasive and I don't see opt out going away soon b

chollie

I think they've been a bit over-extended and could use the manpower.

Lately, at several airports I've passed through, when the WTMD is blocked off, a TSO stands directly blocking the WTMD. In some cases, the TSO is 'reinforcing' cones or standards/ropes already blocking the WTMD; sometimes it is just the TSO blocking the WTMD. This new function has to cause extra work for everyone. If anyone is released from the booth (and I don't think the booths are going away), he/she could block the WTMD as necessary.

goalie

I will still opt out

FliesWay2Much

Just to re-cap: The original procurement and operational specs clearly require the machines to be able to store and transmit images in the training and test modes. Another section of the specs list who, by position, has what authorities and which passwords. The bottom line is that anyone who goes through either machine for some strange reason is one password away from having their image stored for "future use" and transmitted to who-knows-where.

I'm not a software engineer, but I am an engineer. I would believe that this new software is some sort of post-processing algorithm run after the machine has processed the image using its baseline operational software. I would have to believe that a wholesale redesign of the machine's operating software in order to create only the new images is cost-prohibitive, even for the TSA.

VonS

A friend went through the nude-o-scope at ORD today. Had his big fat wallet in his pocket and they never noticed. Those things really work well! NOT! What a waste of money.

Georgia Peach

Shouldn't the goal be FEWER pat downs?



By Kelly Yamanouchi


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta air travelers soon won’t have to worry about feeling so naked if they go through full-body imaging machines at the security checkpoint.

New software in the machines will produce only a “generic outline” of the traveler’s body, rather than a specific image, according to the Transportation Security Administration. The TSA says it is updating the imaging machines at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and 39 other airports in coming months, following successful tests earlier this year.

The $2.7 million software upgrade comes in the wake of outcry over the machines’ technology, and concerns that the images go beyond the level of detail needed to determine if the person is carrying concealed weapons or explosives -- in essence providing a nude image.

Hartsfield-Jackson has had the imaging machines since 2008 and uses 14 of them, although many travelers still only go through conventional metal detectors. When the new software is installed in the imaging machines, both passenger and screener will be able to view the screen with the generic outline and any anomalies will be highlighted with boxes.

If there are no issues, the monitor will display “OK.” If there are anomalies, passengers would still go through additional screening such as a pat-down.

Travelers directed toward an imaging machine can opt for a pat-down instead.

The TSA expects the new software, called Automated Target Recognition, to increase the rate of processing through the imaging machines, though the agency said screening carry-on bags still takes the most time. Tests were done in Atlanta and at two other airports.

At least one critic questioned the effectiveness of the new software. Charlie Leocha, director of the Consumer Travel Alliance, said he thinks there are more false positives with the new software, leading to more of the pat-downs that some consider invasive.

“We’re gaining more privacy in terms of the scanner itself not showing the full bodies. However, we’re then giving up the privacy” through more pat-downs, Leocha said.

The TSA has two types of imaging machines. The “millimeter-wave” machines used in Atlanta and elsewhere are getting new software, while “backscatter” machines used at some other airports will be tested for similar software upgrades this fall. Some also have concerns about radiation from the backscatter imaging machines, though the TSA contends tests show they are safe.


Inside AJC.COM

nachtnebel

I can't disagree about the potential risk. If it comes down to trust, I agree that's insufficient. These people have forfeited our trust completely by sexually assualting us and our families, and it is going to be a long hard road to ever rebuild that trust. I'd want pax representation to have full oversight over these machines and how they are in fact used.

gojirasan

Like rats leaving a sinking ship. I think a lot of them may quit in frustration when they are no longer getting paid to ogle naked 13 year old girls (for their country). The rest will just have to be satisfied with feeling them up after they go through the scanner.

Although I think this ATR software will never be installed, if it does get installed and the scanners are truly made primary everywhere, it will increase the number of patdowns. Although I think all of the TSOs will be sorely disappointed (any guy who claims he doesn't enjoy looking at hundreds/thousands of naked women is a liar), the increase in feel-ups will be the silver lining.

I would predict a lot of personnel changes as people who enjoy the same-sex genital touching completely replace the more visually oriented perv booth addicts. I bet there are quite a few male TSOs who would have already quit out of disgust from having to touch the genitals of hundreds of men, but they can't shake their addiction to the incredible voyeuristic dream that they get to live every day. They would forever miss these years as some of the most intense in their lives. I can just imagine all the stories that will filter out eventually about this airport peep show circus on a scale never before conceived by anyone. Even Hugh Hefner could never have imagined it. Revoking someone's perv booth shift is probably seen as worse punishment than docking their pay.

Just remember the truism 'sex sells', and it has been a very big selling point for working at the TSA. To keep people they would either have to increase their wages or maybe start allowing opposite sex patdowns. After all there really is no good argument for not allowing them. They claim the patdowns are completely non-sexual. And even if they admitted that they were sexual, it still wouldn't be a good argument, unless you accept that hetero is somehow bettero.

MDtR-Chicago

The TSA CIO (forget his name) recently testified before Congress that L3 has not disabled anything. The ability to save an image is only password protected; still quite active in the installed machines.

gojirasan

Ah. The first (CNN) story was sorely lacking in details. So 39 airports, huh? That's far from the comprehensive changeover that the CNN story talked about. And just the MMW machines for now. Sounds like they are just considering increasing the scope of the testing they have already been doing on the ATR systems.

I'm sure this will increase the number of false positives at the airports at which it is deployed. No computer program is perfect. This will be cited as the reason that they were "forced to abandon the program". Like we are supposed to believe that the TSA cares about privacy of the potential terrorist pax. Riiight. But maybe they are thinking that the additional security of an increased number of genital patdowns will more than make up for the increased privacy that we terrorist-citizen-scum surely don't deserve.