New body scanner could detect suicide bombers

LONDON - A revolutionary new body scanner which could enable police and security forces to detect suicide bombers entering rail and subway stations has been developed by a British company.

The equipment, known as the millimetre wave camera, is already in production for a number of overseas security agencies and could be deployed in the UK if the threat to the travelling public increases.

QinetiQ, the company behind the technology, has tested the equipment at Gatwick airport and the Channel Tunnel terminal in Calais where it has been used to screen trucks for asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.

The technology was originally developed by the British Government's Defence Evaluation Research Agency, the forerunner of QinetiQ, to help soldiers and pilots see through fog and cloud. But it has now been adapted to see through a person's clothing to detect whether they are carrying guns, explosives and even biological weapons.

The device works by passively detecting naturally recurring radiation as it reflects off materials such as metal or high explosives. Because these materials reflect 100 per cent of natural radiation whereas the body only reflects 30 per cent, it enables the scanner to detect a person's actual body shape, foiling attempts to conceal items underneath clothing.

The scanner can then either give an analogue warning from green to red or it can be linked to an imaging system to give an actual "see through" picture of the person and any device strapped to them or contained in a rucksack.

The device tested at Gatwick was a "people portal" through which passengers walked but QinetiQ has also developed a stand-off device with a range of up to 100 feet which can either be hand-held or mounted on a tripod and looks like a surveyor's theodolite.

The equipment costs between $525,000 and $1.3 million per device, depending on the format used, which would make it enormously expensive to equip the entire London Underground or the above ground rail network. It would also slow down journey times even though it is three times faster than conventional airport security scanners with the capacity to handle up to 50 people a minute.

Concerns about personal privacy can be overcome using a computer graphics overlay which only highlights the parts of the body which the security forces are interested in.

Simon Stringer, the managing director of QinetiQ's security division, said: "It is feasible to deploy this kind of technology at ticket barriers inside Tube stations.

"But it would have to be part of an integrated system. It is all very well identifying a person who may pose a threat, but armed with that information, how do you isolate them without panicking them and risking loss of life?

"You would need to have a plan of action, otherwise all you have developed is the ability to watch as something goes horribly wrong."

Mr Stringer said much would also depend on whether passengers were prepared to put up with the inconvenience, interference with their travel arrangements and intrusion of privacy which widespread use of the equipment would entail.

"I would hate to see London have to deploy this technology but it will all depend on whether the public ultimately demand it."

- INDEPENDENT