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posted by Fnord666 on Friday August 18 2017, @07:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the Is-that-a-pistol-in-your-pocket,-or... dept.

Passengers on the Los Angeles subway system can, at their option, be checked for weapons and explosives by walking through a millimeter-wave scanner. The system, which began operation Wednesday, was installed by a partnership of Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Transportation Security Administration and the manufacturer of the scanner, Evolv Technology.

Travelers boarding the Metro Red Line at Union Station were met Wednesday with a new security screening system designed to detect possible "mass-casualty" threats, as part of a pilot project to explore the latest in transit-security technology.

The Evolv Edge screening system is billed as a high-speed, high-volume screening system that can scan 600 people per hour, without the need for passengers to stop or even slow down.

According to the manufacturer, Evolv Technology, uses a series of sensors that quickly collect data on people who pass through the machine and feed it into an "algorithmic model that automatically determines if there is a potential threat," rendering a decision in a matter of seconds.

[...] "You don't have to take all the things that you normally carry out of your pockets," he said. "You can leave your phone in your pocket, your keys in your pocket, and we're looking specifically for weapons and explosives. So this system's called a millimeter-wave scanner. It uses harmless radio waves and we're able to process well over 600 visitors per hour."


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  • (Score: 2) by KritonK on Friday August 18 2017, @09:11AM (4 children)

    by KritonK (465) on Friday August 18 2017, @09:11AM (#555780)

    Isn't 600 people per hour a very small number? That many people could easily move through a busy central station in a few minutes. The system had better be scalable, if it is to have any chance of being put into general use.

    And what's this about the check being optional? Innocent passengers, feel free to be inconvenienced by standing in line, terrorists and mass murderers, go right ahead?

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 18 2017, @09:39AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 18 2017, @09:39AM (#555793)

    Isn't 600 people per hour a very small number?

    That depends on what you're doing. It's abysmal for accessing public transportation. It's OK for checking tickets at a movie theater. But it's pretty damn impressive for stuffing people into a wood chipper.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 18 2017, @09:52AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 18 2017, @09:52AM (#555799)

    > Isn't 600 people per hour a very small number?

    The L.A. Times estimates "about 20" [latimes.com] scanners would be needed in Union Station (one of several stations). They cost "about $60,000 each."

    > And what's this about the check being optional?

    It was a two-day testing period. An official said "folks that wanted to participate probably weren’t carrying any weapons."

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday August 18 2017, @05:10PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Friday August 18 2017, @05:10PM (#555981)

      > estimates "about 20" [latimes.com] scanners would be needed in Union Station

      That's L.A. shitty public transport for you.
      In NY, tokyo, or Paris, multiply that number a bit: Line A is one the busiest lines in Europe with over 1,200,000 passengers per day [wikipedia.org]. (numbers for Chinese cities must be a lot worse)
      Counting 20 hours of operation (it's less), that's 100 $60k scanners (but since people are not evenly going through the same station across the day, you gotta multiply that by a lot), just for one of over twenty lines.
      In major stations in big cities, a six-second pipeline stage at rush hour would cause a riot, and conveniently provide a giant mass for terrorists to target.

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by lx on Friday August 18 2017, @10:06AM

    by lx (1915) on Friday August 18 2017, @10:06AM (#555806)

    I bet they can get 1000x the throughput if they switch to meter wave scanners.