X-ray body scanners on airports have been subject to a lot of criticism and debate over the years. Users complain that these scanners look intrusive and the images are revealing. In view of this controversy, the Transportation Security Administration(TSA) has now announced that it is finally removing these scanners from U.S. airports.
TSA first introduced these X-ray scanners at U.S. airports back in 2009. OSI Systems was the manufacturer who provided these scanners. However, what plagued the use of these scanners was the objection of the users that these revealed too much, which felt intrusive.
TSA had asked OSI to redesign the software running on these scanners so that the images from these scanners could be made less revealing. However, OSI failed to act in time and TSA has terminated its contract with the company. It must be noted here that the contract with the company was worth $5 million.
As many as 174 OSI scanners were being used at U.S. airports around the country. TSA is now clearing out these machines to have them replaced with new machines from L-3 Communications Holdings. TSA says that it has switched to the new machines because these are able to provide less revealing images.
Talking about the move, assistant administrator of TSA, Karen Shelton Waters, said, “It became clear to TSA [that OSI] would be unable to meet our timeline. As a result of that, we terminated the contract for the convenience of the government.”
On the other hand, OSI didn’t exactly speak about its failure to deliver according to TSA’s requirements and issued a very formal statement reading, “We have had a close working relationship with TSA and its predecessor agencies for the better part of two decades, during which time we have together pioneered many of the transportation security technologies in use today.”
Courtesy: TG Daily
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