From Michael Bane, I find this lovely link:
LONDON (Reuters) – A British company has developed a camera that can detect weapons, drugs or explosives hidden under people’s clothes from up to 25 meters away in what could be a breakthrough for the security industry.
The T5000 camera, created by a company called ThruVision, uses what it calls “passive imaging technology” to identify objects by the natural electromagnetic rays — known as Terahertz or T-rays — that they emit.
They say that the camera doesn’t “reveal body details” and that the scans are harmless. I guess they’re worried about pervy people looking through you clothes while they’re invading your privacy. With the way technology is advancing, it should does make totalitarianism a lot easier.
Now, I can actually see a legitimate use for this kind of technology, you could use it to screen people entering secured areas, and it would be a lot more efficient than the current method they use at airports. I could actually leave my clothes on instead of having to get half naked and then have some GED graduate hassle me about a bottle of vitamins in my carry-on. But I digress, because I know that these won’t get used just for screening at secure checkpoints.
I can hope that the American’s traditional resistance to invasions of privacy like this would kick in and prevent these from ever crossing the pond.
Given the recent thing with the warrantless wiretaps, all bets are off.
I’d hate to see the price tag of the first production cameras.
Secure checkpoints, eh? Like the mall, the grocery store, the coffee shop downtown, or the local treehuggers’ outdoor gear emporium? The first time I get hassled for legally carrying in public because of one of these things, a big legal hassle will happen, and some “poor little company” will lose a ton of business. Airport, maybe. Anywhere else, they lose my business forever.