I you read this blog regularly then you know I have a lot to say regarding the airport security screening process and specifically the X-ray machines employed by the Transportation Security Administration. Simply put: I am not as concerned about the intensity of the X-ray as much as I am with the consistency of the machine. (For whatever reason, I always seem to get stuck behind the passenger who makes the machine malfunction.) Bottom Line: I just want to get through the security checkpoint as quickly as possible.
If you share my philosophy on airport security checkpoints you will be happy to know that airports across the country may soon be getting hundreds of high-powered X-ray machines that are better at finding bombs in carry-on bags and could someday eliminate one of the biggest checkpoint hassles — taking a laptop out of its case.
According to TSA managers, the new machines are currently being tested in three U.S. airports and depending on how well they perform the government could buy up to 500 beginning this fall. The head of the TSA says the new, more advanced equipment would replace some of the 2,000 conventional airport X-ray machines, which have a limited ability to help security screeners find bombs.
The advanced technology X-ray machines offer several improvements over the traditional devices. First, the new machines have the capability to photograph bags from two angles instead of one and show the images on side-by-side screens. Second, it provides TSA agents with sharper images. And, finally, the new machines have the ability to automatically find explosives by gauging the density and shape of the objects being X-rayed.
This is great news for travelers who don’t leave home without their laptop computers. The new machines could ease the TSA requirement that laptops must be taken out of their cases and sent through X-ray machines in bins by themselves. According to TSA agents, laptops have long been a security concern because their casings are dense and could be used to shield weapons from the current X-ray machines, which take a single photograph from underneath an object. The new machines, take a second shot from the side, which would help reveal a weapon on top of a laptop.
The good news all around: If airport screeners don’t have to X-ray bags a second time to view them from another angle we can all get through the security area a bit faster.
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