privacy concerns VS airport security

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Researchers in Northeastern University, funded by DHS’s Office of Science and Technology, are developing surveillance technologies better to help airport security officials scan passengers and luggage for contraband and suspicious behavior.

In a mock airport in an underground lab at Northeastern, researchers are developing a new way to detect explosives by using radar. In another lab, a professor and a team of students are working on a scanning system which, they hope, will speed up airport security lines. The system uses machines installed in walls or other places to scan passengers as they walk past instead of having them walk individually into a conventional scanning machine.

“The goal is to have a system that provides better scanning of individuals going through security, while at the same time making it more convenient,” said Jose Martinez Lorenzo, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, who is directing the project.

According to HomeLand Security News Wire another surveillance system, developed by engineering professors Octavia Camps and Mario Sznaier, detects when an individual is walking through a security exit in the wrong direction. The surveillance software has been tested since April 2014 at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Currently used at one exit, it scans roughly 50,000 people a week, and has a 99 percent detection rate with only five false alarms a week.