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TSA in first public-comment meeting on large aircraft security measure
There are about 15,000 corporate jets in the United States, flying out of 315 small airports; until now, there has been no security scrutiny of these planes and the hundreds of thousands of passengers who use them every year; TSA wants to change that, and the owners and operators of these planes are concerned
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South Korean woman fools Japanese finger printing system
Japan spent more than $44 million dollars to install the biometric system at 30 airports; a deported South Korean woman was able to re-enter Japan by using fingerprint-altering special tape
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NIST's electromagnetic Phantom standardizes metal detector tests
An electromagnetic phantom — a carbon and polymer mixture that simulates the human body — is being readied by NIST as a standardized performance test for walk-through metal detectors such as those used at airports
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U.S. air travel database fails own privacy tests
DHS privacy report says the department is in violation of U.S. law and the DHS-EU agreement on the handling of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data
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FAA makes special flight rules around Washington, D.C. permanent
In order to keep Washington,D.C. safe from 9/11-like aerial attacks by terrorists while reducing the economic impact on the general aviation community, the FAA reduces the protective air envelope around the U.S. capital by 1,800 square miles of airspace
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Briefly noted
Feds get high marks for aviation security efforts…. Newest U.S. missile detection satellite may be failing… QinetIQ North America in $58 million TALON contract… Measuring effectiveness of emergency response
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Germany reconsiders millimeter wave scanners
Last month the European Parliament banned the use of millimeter wave scanner at European airports because the scanners’ sensitivity allow security personnel to see anatomically correct nude images of passengers; Germany wants to revisit the issue
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Making facial recognition technology more effective
Facial recognition technology holds the promise of identifying individuals in a crowd — and from distance; in real-world environments, however, the task becomes difficult, if not impossible, when the systems acquire poor facial images; NIST researchers offer a solution
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TSA, American Airlines launch paperless boarding
Paperless boarding pass will allow passengers to receive boarding passes electronically on their cell phones or PDAs
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Flexible, flapping flying machines may be on the horizon
Rigid wings and rotors have made aircraft very successful; nature, however, prefers flexible, flapping flying structures — just look at birds; indeed, the most efficient and acrobatic airfoils in nature are the flexible wings of the bat; Brown University researchers want to adopt the bat’s approach to flying for human use
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Thruvision offers T-ray security scanner
Terahertz radiation offer the promise of effective scanning of passengers without revealing anatomically correct images of their bodies
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Briefly noted
Pentagon to ask Obama for $581 billion budget for next fiscal year… Security requirements for private aircraft arriving and departing the United States
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Disease-carrying travelers still a threat
It is now eighteen months since the Andrew Speaker saga: Despite having drug-resistant tuberculosis, and although his name appeared on no-fly lists, Speaker managed to fly to Greece for his wedding, travel to Italy, and come back to the United States; GAO says some improvements have been made, but problems remain
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UAV-based anti-missile defense appears doomed
DHS’s Project Chloe envisioned a UAV-based system to defend commercial airlines against shoulder-fired missiles; Northrop Grumman tests show the system to be more complex, and costlier, than originally anticipated
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U.K. passports costs rise by 39 percent to pay for biometrics
Fingerprinting and facial scanning are costly procedures, and the Home Office attempts to recoup the cost of adding biometric data onto the document
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More headlines
The long view
Prototype Self-Service Screening System Unveiled
TSA and DHS S&T unveiled a prototype checkpoint technology, the self-service screening system, at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, NV. The aim is to provide a near self-sufficient passenger screening process while enabling passengers to directly receive on-person alarm information and allow for the passenger self-resolution of those alarms.