this is such crap... all color values should default to black unless its a foreign object on or in the body. it is NOT rocket science...
Posted on 11/22/2010 7:57:27 PM PST by upchuck
A cheap and simple fix in the computer software of new airport scanners could silence the uproar from travelers who object to the so-called virtual strip search...
The researcher, associated with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, said he was rebuffed when he offered the concept to Department of Homeland Security officials four years ago.
The fix would distort the images captured on full-body scanners so they look like reflections in a fun-house mirror, but any potentially dangerous objects would be clearly revealed, said Willard "Bill" Wattenburg, a former nuclear weapons designer at the Livermore lab.
"Why not just distort the image into something grotesque so that there isn't anything titillating or exciting about it?" Wattenburg said.
....
Wattenburg said that when news reached Livermore in 2006 that the TSA planned to buy the new generation of "backscatter" full-body scanners, the problem seemed clear. "We knew what was going to happen," he said. "People are immediately going to scream like hell because they're taking the clothes off everybody."
Livermore engineers have been deeply involved in enhancing airport security.
....
Wattenburg, whose long resume includes designing anti-terrorist devices, sketched out a possible solution and delivered it to Moses, whose computer experts refined the concept.
"Materials you were looking for would still be there, but body shapes wouldn't be apparent," Moses, the principal assistant director of the Livermore lab said on Saturday. "From the point of view of imaging it's very straightforward. Someone should do a quick study of it in an operational setting."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Wattenburg is semi-retired and works as a consultant to Livermore and several major government contractors. Familiar with the federal bureaucracy, he said he doubts the TSA will take the simplest course of action."They are so far down the road in buying all the equipment that they're too embarrassed to reverse course," he said. "Their very sophisticated equipment can be made to do this."
Stop acting stupidly and review people's history.
My first thought was to "Captcha" the images.
meaningless. They can already change the settings to not show the body and still show all foreign objects.
They don’t want to.
Oh, and that doesn’t require any radiation, then? Yes, that would fix it.
Dr. Wattenburg has a radio show on KGO 810 in San Francisco Sat and Sun from 10 PM to 1 AM. Doesn’t put up with fools, half-wits or Eco-nuts.
Therein lies the problem.
It's going to take a tremendous amount of work on the part of their successor agency to dispel that impression.
this is such crap... all color values should default to black unless its a foreign object on or in the body. it is NOT rocket science...
This sort of Automated Threat Identification has been around for quite a while.
I’ve seen examples done in Matlab and C++.
The problem is that a computer program can only do what it’s told, no replacement for human intuition.
A machine has not caught a terrorist yet.
Bottom line: They are irradiating people without informed consent.
Visual inspection at the skin level (even is in a fun house manner) is an unreasonable search, as are the “enhanced” gate-rape grope fests.
And why, do you suppose, is that?
I believe that TSA has adopted an alternative approach and is upgrading software so that the body image is replaced by an avatar, a cartoon figure. All of the other images remain unchanged. Sounds to me like a superior solution to the distortion idea.
You mean like late-night Walmart shoppers?
This is nonsense. The images are still stored...AND NOT IN THE DISTORTED FORM, YOU CAN BET YOUR BACKSCATTERED ASS.
They want to cow the population under the governments thumb until they can do anything they want to us without protest
“”They are so far down the road in buying all the equipment that they’re too embarrassed to reverse course,” he said. “Their very sophisticated equipment can be made to do this.””
It doesn’t have anything to do with embarrassment, or security. The idea that one has to get on a plane to kill lots of people, or that fondeling people will uncover bombs in a safe manner is absurd. They aren’t just stuck on stupid, but dead set on authoritarianism for the sake of it.
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