NYPD to begin using radiation scanners on pedestrians & vehicles looking for concealed weapons.
The device, which tests for terahertz radiation, is small enough to be placed in a police vehicle or stationed at a street corner where gunplay is common.
The program is being paid for by the U.S. Department of Defense, said Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the NYPD. Mr. Browne described the machine as a "multimillion" dollar device but wouldn't specify its cost.
Mr. Browne said the police aimed to get the T-Ray technology in a device small enough to carry on an officer's gun belt. The police provided no timetable for when any version of the device would be deployed.
Last month, the California Institute of Technology developed a terahertz microchip, raising the possibility the technology could one day be packed into hand-held devices.
The NYPD received its machine last week, he said. Representatives of the company, Digital Barriers.
The NYPD will soon deploy new technology allowing police to detect guns carried by criminals without using the typical pat-down procedure, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday.
The department just received a ThruVision machine that reads terahertz — the natural energy emitted by people and inanimate objects — and allows police to view concealed weapons from a distance.
“If something is obstructing the flow of that radiation, for example a weapon, the device will highlight that object,” Kelly said.
A video image aired at a Police Foundation breakfast Wednesday showed an officer, clad in a New York Jets jersey and jeans, with the shape of a hidden gun clearly visible under his clothing when viewed through the device.
“We took delivery of it last week,” Kelly said at the gathering at the Waldorf Astoria. “One of our requirements was that the technology must be portable.
"Any technology that allows police to peer into a person's body or possessions raises a lot of questions...," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in an email. "But to the extent that this technology reduces the abuse of stop-and-frisk that harms hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers every year, we're intrigued by the possibilities."
Mr. Kelly said the department was working with its lawyers to assess "how we can utilize [the new machine] and how we can deploy it" in light of due-process protections under the U.S. Constitution and to guard against possible litigation that could arise from its use.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-readies-scan-and-frisk-article-1.1245663
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323539804578260261579068182.html
T-Rays technology could help develop Star Trek-style hand-held medical scanners.
Scientists say that the T-ray scanner and detector could provide part of the functionality of a Star Trek-like medical 'tricorder' -- a portable sensing, computing and data communications device -- since the waves are capable of detecting biological phenomena such as increased blood flow around tumorous growths. Future scanners could also perform fast wireless data communication to transfer a high volume of information on the measurements it makes.
T-rays are waves in the far infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum that have a wavelength hundreds of times longer than those that make up visible light. Such waves are already in use in airport security scanners, prototype medical scanning devices and in spectroscopy systems for materials analysis. T-rays can sense molecules such as those present in cancerous tumours and living DNA, since every molecule has its unique signature in the THz range. They can also be used to detect explosives or drugs, for gas pollution monitoring or non-destructive testing of semiconductor integrated circuit chips.
Current T-ray imaging devices are very expensive and operate at only a low output power, since creating the waves consumes large amounts of energy and needs to take place at very low temperatures.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120120183038.htm