Strip search: camera that sees through clothes from 80ft away

Times Online UK ^ | 3/9/08 | Jonathan Leake

[xtinct]

A CAMERA that can see through people’s clothing at distances of up to 80ft has been developed to help detect weapons, drugs and explosives.

The camera could be deployed in railway stations, shopping centres and other public spaces.

Although it can see objects under clothes, its designers say the images do not show anatomical details. However, it is likely to increase fears that Britain has become a surveillance society.

The new technology, known as the T5000 system, has attracted interest from police forces, train companies and airport operators as well as government agencies.

It has been developed by ThruVision, an Oxfordshire-based company spun out from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, one of the government’s leading physics research centres.

It was designed for use in spacecraft and astronomy but researchers soon realised that cameras capable of seeing through clouds of cosmic dust could also see through clothing. This week the camera will be displayed at the Home Office scientific development branch’s annual exhibition, Britain’s premier showcase for security equipment, to be held on an RAF airbase in Buckinghamshire.

ThruVision already offers a smaller system designed for office foyers that can scan through clothing at a range of 30ft-40ft.

[When do we get liberated?]

Why not? They obviously botched this....

[PGalt]

Cool. Thanks for posting. Funny FReeper comments BUMP!

[Revelation 911]

That’s so 90s.

.....youre expecting something modern from rochester ny

[nicko]

...ay, and there’s the truth of it...being Irish myself, I can, in some small measure perhaps, agree with you...holding up the beer, saluting your humble observation..

[SandRat]

You mean it will just show rolls of fat? ..errr.. Love Handles.

[SandRat]

Well.. after all it wasn’t designed by Larry Flynt.

[jws3sticks]

This source is not letting me post the picture, unfortunately. My point is that with this outfit, who needs those expensive and special machines?

http://www.starzhunter.com/c/carla_bruni_03/pics/carla_bruni_04.jpg

[karnage]

It ain’t der pockets I’m lookin at.

[Ronin]

Hasn’t this thing been around for the last five years or so?

[MaxMax]

However, it is likely to increase fears that Britain has become a surveillance society.

Um, it's a little too late for consideration about fears. The population
is probably already numbed to the prospect.

[Lijahsbubbe]

LOL. I thought of those old magazine ads as soon as I read this!

Funny how back then even the cheap little ads had correct grammar etc. Better than the major newspapers of today!

[MaxMax]

[thackney]

Wrong technology, that is backscatter xray that does not work from a distance. This is more like:

[Mr. Jeeves]

A choice between a Democrat European-style welfare state and a terrorism-obsessed surveillance state is not a choice.

Just live here in America for a few more years and you can have both. It's not like Hillary or Obama are going to give up the surveillance "gains" made by the Bush Administration. ;)

[weegee]

Hasn’t this thing been around for the last five years or so?

Yeah but this one is less likely to give everyone in the immediate area cancer... < /s >

[weegee]

900 FBI files say that Hillary doesn’t give a rat’s @$$ about what the law permits or prohibits her from doing.

[pax_et_bonum]

And how is a camera that can detect drugs through clothes supposed to NOT reveal private anatomical contours?

The Chinese probably would be happy to produce lead shield undies to hide our anatomical contours.

[dr_who_2]

Good point.