Three Companies Vie for Next Generation Airport X-Ray Machines
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By Stew Magnuson and Grace Jean
Three of the top x-ray machine manufacturers are being given a chance to prove their technologies’ worth at airport security checkpoints this year in a competition that could be worth several million dollars.
The Transportation Security Administration is paying three companies $1.4 million each to lease their most advanced multi-view and high definition x-ray machines. L3 Communications, Smiths Detection and Rapiscan Systems are supplying seven machines apiece. One or more of the companies will be chosen and the program expanded, according to the TSA.
TSA hopes the new generation of x-ray machines will give screeners clearer and more detailed images. It also wants the systems to easily accommodate software upgrades, have low-maintenance costs and be smaller than current units.
TSA’s test and evaluation department has been busy this summer. It also carried out operational tests at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport on the controversial “backscatter” scanner, which peers underneath clothing to detect weapons or other potentially dangerous items.
TSA resolved privacy issues by converting the screen image into a “filtered” outline of the passenger’s body. A suspicious object appears on a “chalk outline” and will be interpreted in a separate room by a TSA officer who cannot directly see the person standing in front of the scanner.