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Weapon detection debate may shift spectrum
People entering public buildings may be frisked for weapons without even knowing it.
A new detection system due out in June will use information gleaned from images in the millimeter spectrum to detect weapons, Brijot Imaging Systems announced this week. The system can recognize a weapon on someone's body by processing video taken in the millimeter wave spectrum using ambient light in less than a half second. No active millimeter wave sources are necessary, eliminating the possibility of a technology hazardous to the target's health. Brijot claims to have already taken orders totalling $100 million for the detectors.
The news follows after another article focused on a similar system created by security firm QinetiQ, a company spun off from an agency in Britain's Ministry of Defence.
While the system does see through clothing--and human beings for that matter--it doesn't "disrobe" people like other imaging technologies, the company claimed. Instead it focuses on metal and ceramic objects detected by density. Good for privacy and for security? We'll see.
