Thruvision offers T-ray security scanner

Published 19 November 2008

Terahertz radiation offer the promise of effective scanning of passengers without revealing anatomically correct images of their bodies

No one wants to board a plane with a terrorist, but travelers also do not want to walk through an X-ray machine that displays an anatomically correct images of their naked bodies to the leers of TSA workers (millimeter wave scanners offer a new level of security at airport checkpoints, but they also offer revealing images of people’s private parts; this is why the EU has just voted against using them in European airports. See 24 October 2008 HS Daily Wire story).

Now Didcot, Oxfordshire, U.K.-based Thruvision is offering its T5000, claiming it is the first security camera to spot a wide range of concealed contraband-bombs, guns, drugs, liquids, and plastic explosives — without revealing anatomical details. The T5000 picks up faint electromagnetic signals known as terahertz waves, or T-rays, naturally emitted by all people and things. From eighty feet away, the camera can detect the difference between unique T-rays beaming off passengers and those coming from an object. Concealed goods show up onscreen as an outline against a G-rated silhouette of a body.

The camera can even scan people in motion, a feature that could speed up security lines and make it ideal for public venues like malls and stadiums. Unlike an X-ray, the T5000 does not emit dangerous ionizing energy — or anything at all — so there is no harm to operators or to people being scanned.

Thruvision has sold several units to the U.S. defense department this year and is in talks with major airports.

-read more about terahetz radiation on “New T-ray Source Would Improve Airport Security, Cancer Detection,” HS Daily wire, 7 December 2007