Body scanners without body－Shillmax

Since Monday at the Hamburg airport, the first devices tested - to see are just stick figures. Still running the system is not round - it was to start a false alarm.

Thomas de Maizière was posted on Monday temporarily the stick figure. At Hamburg airport started the first German Federal Minister of the Interior practice test with the controversial body scanners. For six months, two devices are tested with volunteer passengers.

The guinea pig is also the minister. After some remarks by representatives of the federal police de Maizière pulls off his jacket, enters the glass enclosed on two sides open cabin, is located exactly on the yellow Fußmarkierungen and raises his arms properly. In a few seconds, the scanner around him, then a gray stick figure appears with two yellow squares on the arm and hip on the screen: The Minister had forgotten to take off his watch and his mobile phone.

The method is the minister "entirely easy, no problem." The image of liberty "does not identify my body figure," he stressed. De Maizière speaks of an "important step on the path to greater security in air transport". The attempted attack in Detroit last year showed that air traffic was still a target of international terrorism.
Unlike the controversial first devices, the two now installed in Hamburg, each of 150 000 euros expensive Pro-vision devices with the new software ATD (Advanced Threat Detection), which makes the transfer of original images in a control room unnecessary. On the screen directly on the car appear front and back of the stick figure with marks at the places where suspicious objects make targeted follow-up required. Also intimate body parts that remain left out in the conventional scanning with the hand to be recognized. Thus, a further vulnerability. is "body scanner, or even distorted body images do not exist in Germany, de Maiziere said on Monday.

In addition to the protection of individual rights is the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, acknowledged health risk condition for use, said de Maizière. The scanners in the millimeter wave region located in the border region between infrared light and microwaves, and some of the natural heat radiation employed. The model used in Hamburg uses of radiation, it sends itself from waves that scan the body of the passenger. On the website of the Office states that the few available studies in the frequency range of the scanner allow no final assessment. However, we have measured in tested devices, a radiation dose that was maximal at 0.001 per cent of the allowable limit. 10 000 scans correspond to the burden of a one-hour mobile phone call, an agent of the company two years ago said at a trade fair. There are now also classified as absolutely harmless scanners that work with passive radiation and measure only the waves emitted by the human body anyway. These devices however were "still far from operational," said the Interior Minister.

For over a year different scanner models were tested by the federal police internally. It was pro vision than the current most advanced technology has been determined, it said on Monday. However, the software is not perfect and will be further developed. So it was in the "lab test" too many false positives, and the minister saw himself on the second attempt is still yellow. The scanner had identified a wrinkle in his shirt as a suspect.

The question of how many passengers can cope with the scanner, can answer only the final practical test. In Amsterdam, where as Pro Vision already since last year in routine use, it comes after recent data on 250 passengers per hour. This is about the frequency of the classical magnetic metal detectors, show only metallic objects, while the scanners detect all materials, including plastic or liquid explosives. In Italy, however, was different after the test device at four airports are not satisfied. "In the normal control with scanning is faster," said the president of the state aviation authority ENAC, Vito Riggio.

De Maizière is confident that the trial in Hamburg leads to more positive results. If it turns out that the technology is still immature, they would not introduce it in normal operation. In Hamburg, the passengers can first decide voluntarily whether to use the body scanner. Then they are asked about their experiences. "I hope that contributions from many passengers," said Hamburg Airport CEO Michael Eggert. Unlike the future BBI in Berlin, where you had to change the proposed size of the security locks that fit the scanner in Hamburg present in the control locks.