Sitting in LIT right now and I saw a TSO walking through the terminal area with what looked to be a handheld scanner of some sort. He stopped to talk to a couple of flight attendants and asked them if they liked his "FIDO"?.

Now as pick up lines go, it was pretty weak and they were suitably unimpressed

On the return trip, he was flanked by 2 other TSOs and they were looking at the instrument and waving it from side to side.

I looked and the Star Trek convention isn't in town, so what is this thing and has anybody else seen one?

http://www.tsa.gov/blog/

A search without consent?

Last I saw them, they were using them inside airplanes to sniff between flights.

Just something else to break and throw away.

airline brat

From what I understand about the thing, which I was told HSV probably won't be getting, Fido isn't an acronym for anything. It is, quite literally, named that because it's supposed to be a replacement for a bomb-sniffing dog. It's supposed to be equal to, or perhaps more sensitive than, a dog's nose in detecting explosives.

Other than that, I can't say I know too much about it.

Maybe, maybe not. I'm not too keen on the legal capabilities of it, but from what I understand - mixed with a healthy dose of speculation - the implied consent goes beyond the checkpoint area to cover the whole of the sterile area beyond the checkpoint. It's mentioned under those little signs all over the place (different airport mileage may vary, obviously) that state carry-on baggage can be searched at any time. Ergo, by simply being in there, you have given consent for the search.

I'm of the impression that these gizmos are being used BEFORE the sterile area.

Eh, it's possible. Like I said, HSV doesn't have them and likely won't, so I don't know very much about them and how they're supposed to be getting used.

If I hear anything though, I'll try to let you know, obviously within boundaries of what SSI would allow me to say.

Off-hand, and with even more speculation incoming, even if it was used in the public area outside the checkpoint, from what little I do know about the devices it wouldn't be anything more or less different than a drug-sniffing dog walking by you and hitting on a bag of weed in your pocket or something while doing one of their random sweeps through the airport. You never gave consent for the search, per se, but since it's not a physically intrusive or delaying search in the first place, and that it happens to nearly everyone that just happens to come in the general vicinity of the dog (or, more accurately, that the dog happens to come into their general vicinity) then it doesn't matter.

I don't know specifically, but I don't think that the Fido device has to have close proximity (as in, within inches) to detect something - unlike, say, a hand-held metal detector.

Hence: The TSO-in-question might have been checking the whole entire area around him, while standing in that one spot and not necessarily near anyone in particular.

The better question would be - what happens next if the Fido device had picked up a whiff of explosives on such a general-area search? Alternatively, he could've just been showing the two TSOs how the thing works.

Ultimately, I'll have to try to find out more about them.

EDIT: Just looked up some of the information about it. I was thinking of a different piece of technology. It may be another variant of the Fido device, which, as it stands, is used for detecting liquid explosives inside of bottles and not just general explosives. I'll have to do some more research when I have time to try to suss out what exactly it may have been.

I was INSIDE the sterile area when I saw it. Don't know if it was being used or it was part of a j.o.s.

I also lack any personal experience with these technologies. From the descriptions I've read, I was under the impression that they were still somewhat limited in range. (As in, you would still have the opportunity to see the set up and decide not to enter, if you chose.) The pictures available on the EoS Blog and TSA website don't seem to indicate anything different.

I'd also be very interested to find more information about these technologies.

Here's a couple of links, with pictures of the device in action. It looks like it's a contact or close proximity sensor so they won't be trolling through the concourse waving it around.

http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/bls.shtm

http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/20..._05222007.shtm

You must give consent before FIDO can be used on your bag.

Two SMURF's at DCA yesterday with FIDO looking to search ppl at the gate before flying... they were standing next to the boarding line... no one in front of me had anything to drink in their hand, or I'm guessing they'd have been FIDO'd.