• Proceeding to your flight involves compulsory security checks administered by the TSA.
• Fortunately, proceeding through X-ray machines of the TSA isn’t as stressful as it once was; it’s quick, easy, and relatively noninvasive.
• When it’s time to take flight, you’ll have to be scanned in many airports.
• New leaps in X-ray scanning make security checks more effective
• Ever been through an X-ray scanner? These machines have changed in the past few years.
If you’ve traveled anywhere by plane in the last decade and a half, you know that the TSA has become a part of airport life. The security checks that are in each major airport are there to ensure your safety, but when you just want to get your flight over with, you may have some questions.
TSA Security Full Body Scans
These days, the full body scan has become increasingly common at American airports. X-rays typically provide a direct view of the person that is having the scan taken, but is processed in a way that does not violate privacy.
What’s referred to as ‘the X-ray machine’ – the modern device you walk through at your local airport – may not even be using X-rays to decipher whether or not you’re carrying prohibited items. This does not mean that the X-ray scanner is fake; it may just mean that it is using a different mode of scan technology.
Why Not Use X-ray Technology?
For many years following the attacks on 9/11, the TSA used X-ray technology to detect foreign objects on passengers. This technology was very effective; in fact, whole-body devices, like the backscatter machine that used low-energy X-rays during a full body scan, provided a virtually unobstructed view of any contraband or explosive devices.
While the tech was great for security, it also caused clothed individuals to appear in the backscatter viewer as unclothed, which was viewed by some as an invasion of privacy. As a result of these concerns, the TSA ceased using this type of X-ray body scanner tech in 2013.
The Modern Body Scanner
With safety and accuracy in mind, the millimeter wave imaging machine, or MMW, was utilized as a new security device. This device, which uses a unique type of microwave to detect foreign objects on a passenger’s person, is much more noninvasive than X-rays.
The microwaves emitted by the machine crisscross the body of the passenger, actually passing through the clothing in order to detect threats. The machine only sends data back to the receiver.
At the receiver, the X-ray app inside the MMW determines if there are any items of interest on the passenger and reports it to the agent.
This full-body scan technology allays many of the modern traveler’s fears and makes the whole experience a little more palatable for frequent and non-frequent flyers.
Things to Consider with TSA X-ray Machines
Some passengers may choose to avoid full body scans and TSA X-ray machines. In this situation, the TSA agents at the security point can still administer a standard pat-down search.
