Airports go naked by Claudia Sonea

I think everyone knows about the pesky machines used in airports and called metal detectors passengers. Well now the federal government thought to improve them and make them more appealing to the passengers, therefore a body-scanning machine that uses radio waves to detect foreign objects like explosives, metal, plastic and liquids, anything that might be hidden on the body, according to the official press release given by Mike Golden, the Transportation Security Administration's chief technology officer. Golden explained that the machine uses electromagnetic waves to create an image based on energy reflected from the body and not radiation. There will be a large portal of about 9 feet tall and 6 feet wide and all passengers will go through, lift their arms while the machine takes two scans using radio waves- all the process will last for a minute and 1.8 seconds. US Department of Transportation Security Administration's spokeswoman Ellen Howe said the TSA officer in charge of the screening will never see faces that also will be blurred, so person cannot be recognized. Tests for the new machine took place on Thursday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Besides the fact that officials have to determine if is more effective than the metal detectors, they also have to confront the privacy advocates. Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's program on technology and liberty stated that the screening literally shows naked people and if Playboy would have come up with the idea, politicians would have classified it as pornographic. Nevertheless, John F. Kennedy and Los Angeles international will be equipped with such devices and there will be a trial period before a final decision. Stay connected and watch out at the airport, you never know when you might go…ups, naked!

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20071011/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_airport_body_scan;_ylt=AqWfHCAoVKAhfJPaNb0p5tms0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.