Full-body scan images go generic at MSP

Revealing images have given way to Gumby-like outlines for airport passengers subjected to electronic body scans at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport security gates.

MSP has joined a growing list of airports using new equipment that displays a generic figure instead of X-ray-type images of individuals.

The Transportation Security Administration spent a year working the bugs out of the new system, which was shown off to reporters Thursday.

The generic approach is a response to complaints that the sharper images violated passenger privacy. "I feel a little violated when they can see your body," said Jan Johnson, 60, of Kasilof, Alaska, an infrequent flier returning home after visiting friends in Brainerd.

The new system has the added advantage of speeding up checkpoint lines because it eliminates the need for security officers to review images from locations where they can't see the passenger. "It's probably a 12- to 15-second process," said Joe Taney, deputy federal security director for the TSA in Minnesota. "In the past it might have been 20 to 30 seconds. When you start piling up 10,000 people a day, it adds up."

As with the old system, passengers can decline to be scanned by the new equipment. But they will then receive a more intrusive pat-down.

The latest generation of airport security scanners relies on software called Automated Target Recognition, which pinpoints suspicious items on unidentifiable human forms. It was installed in MSP's six scanners during the past week.

The new system uses the same outline to depict every passenger scanned, regardless of their size or weight. A yellow box on the image locates potential threats under a passenger's clothes that will require additional screening.

If the software detects nothing unusual, a green "OK" appears on the monitor. Passengers can view the same image the TSA officer sees.

The software upgrade cost $2.7 million to develop.

The old system attempted to protect privacy by blurring facial features. But it provided views of the particular contours of the rest of bodies and undergarments, making some passengers uneasy.

An officer away from the security area would review the image and send instructions to the officer, delaying the passenger. The new system "identifies the anomaly on the body quicker," Taney said.

Passengers take it in stride

The original version of the scanner triggered a brief national protest movement last year, inspired by a California man who refused a scan and subsequent pat-down, warning officers not to "touch my junk."

But others have accepted scanners as a necessary tradeoff to thwart terrorism.

At least 98 percent of the passengers who have been identified for scanning at MSP have agreed to go through it, TSA officials said. About 20 percent of all passengers at the airport are scanned instead of being checked by more traditional metal detectors, which miss non-metallic weapons.

"I was never bothered by the old one," said Virginia Moorehead, 60, of Minong, Wis., who was at the airport Thursday to catch a flight to North Carolina. "The new one's fine as long as it gets as many guns and knives."

"I don't care who sees what," she added.

Her view is shared by most Americans. A CBS poll in November 2010 showed that 81 percent supported the more explicit scanning machines. Only 15 percent opposed them.

The poll showed Americans oppose racial profiling at airports by 52 percent to 37 percent.

Angela Christy, 54, a Minneapolis attorney who was at the airport Thursday, said the new system, promising a quicker trip through security, is a plus. "Speed and avoiding pat-downs is my preference," she added.

Jack McCutcheon, 60, of Portland, Ore., said he never thought the old scanner "was all that explicit." In any event, he's resigned to scanning as a fact of modern life at airports.

"It's pretty much a pain to fly these days," he said.

Pat Doyle - 612-673-4504