Airport scanners
What works in the laboratory doesn't always perform so well in the real world. And that's been the case with some of this new security scanner technology appearing in our airports and elsewhere.
In America scanners that "sniff" the air to detect traces of explosives have found the from sterile lab to the more dirty world of the modern airport pretty difficult.
This fact combined with recent attempted terrorist attacks has lead to plenty of renewed interest in scanners that don't "sniff" but instead "see" through the clothes of passengers to reveal what we might be hiding .
Well the good news is that Malvern based Qinetic is about to introduce that doesn't put you through a virtual strip tease.
Instead the SPO system shows the operator a live cctv image of the people being scanned and next to each person a "threat bar" which starts at green and shoots up to red if the computer thinks a passenger is hiding something under their clothes. At which point they could be pulled aside for further questioning.
The system doesn't emit x-rays or other radiation itself. Instead it passively observes the natural radiation from our bodies and interprets any interference caused by potential bombs hidden under clothes. In the tests we conducted it detected dummy blocks of plastic explosives, bombs stuffed with shrapnel and devices based on volatile liquids.
In America various versions have been tested out at conventions, a ferry terminal and an airport drop-off point. And now the US Government and the British Home Office are going to endorse the technology which should mean we'll see the camera popping up in plenty of locations both here and there.
Eventually if it can be adapted for hotter, dustier climates it may even be deployed to Afghanistan and the Middle East.
The bad news is there's a good chance you'll end up going through a "nearly naked" scanner at some point. But this is an extra layer of security that can quickly identify potential problems much earlier on. In the trials even the act of having the system trained on passengers lead to one chap with a guilty conscience making a dash for it rather than face walking past the camera. He was caught, pulled to one side and found to have several unpaid court fines.
I'm David Gregory, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Science Correspondent for the West Midlands. My first law states: "Science is the answer." There is no second law. Feel free to drop me a line: 
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