Going through airport security can be a pain, and the Transportation Security Administration knows it. That’s why TSA is exhibiting at CES 2025 in Las Vegas A new scanner that lets you keep your shoes on. When CNET’s Bridget Carey discovered the technology being demonstrated, she knew she had to shake things up and try out the scanner for herself.
If the new technology works, passengers could have their shoes scanned for prohibited items while passing through security with their shoes on. Step onto the platform and place each foot on the marked area. Millimeter wave technology scans the shoe and sends the data to a computer.
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“Let’s make it interesting,” Carey said. “Maybe you should put something in your shoe and see what happens with the scanner.”
Carey shoved various small objects into her shoes, including a dental floss pick, a gummy worm, a packet of mustard, and a plastic knife, before stepping onto the TSA screening table.
Shoes have been an issue at airports for more than 20 years. In December 2001, Richard Reed attempted to blow up an American Airlines plane with a homemade bomb. hiding in his shoes. He was subdued after struggling to light the fuse and no one was injured, but in 2006 the TSA began requiring passengers to: take off shoes while going through security.
Brian Lewis of the Department of Homeland Security told Carey that if the new shoe technology were introduced at airports, screeners would not actually review the images themselves.
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“Everything will be done by automatic detection algorithms,” Lewis said. “So the officer gets a red light or a green light and says, is the shoe OK or does it need further inspection?”
Lewis said the machines are looking for a variety of things, including tampered shoes, specific material properties and other issues.
The technology relays the image in slices, essentially building a photo of the shoe layer by layer on a computer screen. One of the demo shoes had a metal letter “F” hidden inside, and Lewis showed Carey how the metal letter slowly materialized as slices of the image were stacked on top of each other. The scan only takes about 1 second, and the image appears almost immediately.
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Detecting gummy worms requires work
As expected, Carrie’s object-filled shoe appeared strangely on the scan. Lewis was able to point out the outline of a condiment bag and a plastic knife.
“We don’t know if gummy worms are visible or not, so additional development may be needed to be able to detect them effectively,” he said.
When the machine rescanned her shoes without the object, she was fine.
“We are working towards a more seamless travel experience, and we know what the traveling public wants. [is to] You don’t have to take your shoes off anymore,” Lewis said. “So we think that offering this technology to passengers will be very exciting for them.”
The scanner is still a prototype, and data will be collected from the CES demonstration and used for further development.
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