Fairground mirrors could resolve TSA scanner controversy, says scientist

LONDON - Worried that your full-body-scan images at US airports would end up being misused? Well, take a breather, as a scientist has offered a solution- make every naked scan look like the grotesque contorted image in a fairground mirror.

Bill Wattenburg, nuclear weapons designer, has planned to use in-scanner image-processing software to make every naked scan look like the grotesque contorted image in a fairground mirror or fun house mirror as they are known in the US, reports New Scientist.

In this way, any explosives lurking in a terrorist’s gusset, cleavage or armpit will still be visible but the person will have squat legs about 30 centimetres long, a 2-metre-long torso and a pin-sized head - in other words, he or she will be unrecognisable, he said.

Wattenburg said he has approached the TSA’s paymaster, the Department of Homeland Security, with the idea in 2006, but it came to nought.

While that idea is pondered, some TSA screeners have been making it pretty clear they don’t enjoy the new post-pants-bomber regime any more than the passengers.

Complaints abound about having to “feel inside the flab rolls of obese passengers” and “the large number of passengers who don’t understand what personal hygiene is.” (ANI)