concealed objects to a trained operator.
It is almost impossible to recognise the
person being scanned and, with remote
monitoring, whereby the image analyst
is stationed in a room separate to the
checkpoint, airports can ensure that
no screener physically sees both the
passenger and the image of the passenger.
Furthermore, there is a blurring option,
enabling airports to further decrease
the potential of a passenger being
recognised. This blurring option could
be applied to facial features, as well as to
genitalia in parts of the world where such
graphic images could be problematic for
religious or cultural reasons. That said,
given that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
concealed his device in his underwear,
it is questionable as to whether blurring
images of such areas of the body doesn’t
negate the value of the deployment of
the system.
L-3 have sold, to date, 285 ProVision
systems, including 75 to Amsterdam
Schipol, where Abdulmutallab boarded
the Northwest flight to Detroit on
Christmas Day. There are 40 systems
at some 19 American airports and 45 in
Canada, together with others in Russia,
Indonesia and in various Latin American
countries; the company is currently
manufacturing 50 units per month.
A new variation on the product is
the ProVision AT. This further counters
Top: L-3's ProVision AT generates generic stick figures as concerns any potential customers have
the main images the screeners view in order to alleviate over privacy, by using a generic stick
privacy concerns. Below: The ProVision installation. figure as the main image the screener
Far right: Brijot's GEN2 passive millimetre wave image. sees and then automatically affixing any
potential threats concealed beneath the
Millimetre Wave clothing to that image. Such software also
From the perspective of the general has the advantage of being able to pick
public, of all the body imaging solutions up potential threats that operators miss.
being mooted, millimetre wave imaging Whilst L-3’s solution uses a portal that
causes the least concern when it comes requires the passenger to stop and be
to personal privacy and perceived health scanned, Brijot Imaging Systems has
implications. The images are nowhere designed and manufactures the stand-off
near as graphic as their backscatter or checkpoint GEN 2 solution. This uses The system is already deployed at
X-ray counterparts can be on backscat- real-time passive (negating any health 7 UK airports by UK Border Agency
ter systems that are not equipped with concerns that may still remain about for Customs purposes where, in their
privacy image (the standard for aviation active solutions) millimetre wave imaging words, the system “proved the technical
applications) functionality and, as one is capabilities, but allows users to search ability to successfully screen passengers
using the naturally occurring radiation in for and locate potential threats on an for contraband travelling short or long
the Earth’s atmosphere, we are not sub- individual quickly and discretely from a haul flights with final destinations into
jecting passengers to additional ionising distance without their needing to stop. the UK during trials in 2007”.
radiation exposure. Indeed, GEN2’s theoretical throughput is The GEN2 images do not reveal any
L-3’s ProVision, following a two-second 720 people per hour with a dual system anatomical details, thus protecting
scan, creates a 3-D black and white deployment, and 360 people per hour privacy. The hidden item/anomaly clearly
silhouette of the subject that reveals for single turn and spin deployment. shows up on the image for effective
14 Register now for FREE instant access to ASI online by visiting
www.asi-mag.com February 2010 Aviationsecurityinternational
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