February theme: Aviation securityTSA lab's new concept in airport security: Tunnel of Truth
Futuristic vision of airport security would see passengers stand on a conveyor belt moving under an archway as different sensors scan them for weapons, bombs, and other prohibited items; no need to take the shoes off; by the time they step out of the tunnel, they have been thoroughly checked out
A smart mathemtics Ph.D. student may want to consider writing his or her dissertation on the direct correlation between, on the one hand, the importance of being on time for a pressing business meeting in another city and, on the other hand, the length of lines and slowness of the security screening process at the airport of origin. We may call it the Irritability Corollary. National Defense reports that Transportation Security Laboratory director Susan Hallowell would like to see the day when airline passengers no longer have to take their shoes off after standing in a long line at airport security checkpoints. Instead, she would like to combine the line and an array of sensors into what she calls a “tunnel of truth.”
The concept — with the somewhat Orwellian name — would have passengers stand on a conveyor belt moving under an archway as various sensors scan them for weapons, bombs or other prohibited items. By the time they step out of the tunnel, they have been thoroughly checked out, she said at a homeland security science and technology conference sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association.
“You’re in line anyway … why not enclose that in a little glass thing and do your analysis there?” she asked.
The lab has given a grant to Penn State University to study the concept.
