The Drudge Report has an image of a woman from an airport scanner up right now. It’s scandalous enough as is, but it’s shockingly easy to make it look even more like a normal nude photograph.
Reader Sigfried discovered that by simply inverting the image in Photoshop, you restore the photo to a more realistic tint. Of course, we’re not sure where this image came from or if it’s an accurate example of what these machines produce. But if so, let me just deliver a message to all you airport security workers out there: I just got out of a cold pool, I swear.
If these whole-body scanners are implemented, how many celeb pictures are mysteriously going to show up on the web? Oh, and if you’re interested in the non-censured photo, click here.
Update: a commenter, Two to the head, gives a great idea:
Hey, they could FUND the TSA by selling nude photos to TMZ. Save tax dollars for more important things like highways to nowhere.
The images have to be in some sort of gray scale. Then you paint in whatever colors you want.
You can more or less do the same thing with an infrared camera. I thought I wanted one to photograph wild critters at night when they would be much easier to locate using the camera. Mount one on a car window and drive to good location with a wide field of view and all the things that glow are critters. Use a 40X to zoom in and get some good video of foxes, rabbits, deer, or whatever.
Then I found out that wasn’t going to happen because the camera could be used to see through cloths. That’s how I ended up wasting my time in this group.
Animbay,
I have no idea which technology was used for that TSA scan … I just grapped one floating around the Internet.
One obvious difference is that the real TSA scan doesn’t have hair, which seriously reduces the attractiveness of most women and many men.
I, myself, am not too worried about the privacy issue — I’m just not convinced it is going to work, despite being very expensive.
I don’t know much about plastic explosives but couldn’t they be shaped into something common — like child’s blocks or dried fruit or whatever?
I favour human intelligence who track and block these guys LONG BEFORE they ever get to an airport.
But even in airports, I think well-trained, well-paid, highly professional, very smart people are the best tools for spotting and stopping these guys.
Think of the “Millennium Bomber” — he was caught by a heads-up, diligent border guard. The Wikipedia entry on this is funny — the guard’s main clue was that Ressam was acting, “hinky,”
Hinky! But that’s the biggest weakness in these terror plots, isn’t it? A terrorist is going to have a damn-hard time acting perfectly normal.
I did a ride-along with the police, once, and learned that good veteran cops are excellent at spotting “hinky” people and situations. We’d be driving along and the cop would spot something in an alley or the bushes that I totally missed and he was usually right.
This is opposed to religious or racial profiling which I am adamantly against — it’s about spotting “hinky” behaviour.
the airline is private property and has every tight to search you.
YEt. the Airport is usualy publicly funded property and with that should come the 4th amendment. Why are we paying for services that the airlines should be paying for?
It’s a fake. If you invert it, you get color on the left side. This contradicts the “invert and ADD color” bit. They’ve just taken a real photo, added some stuff and blurred it, then inverted it to make the fake image.
# 31 DJ said, “Any one of us can’t get a hundred high quality photos of great looking nude women in the next 30 seconds” I don’t think that’s the point, DJ. The point is how many nude photos of your mother will we find?
# 33 Greg – Agreed. I’ve always thought any pro bomber would take a couple of pounds of plastique and mold it into a laptop battery. Circuitry would pass xray examination and you’d have an energy source. When was the last time they asked anybody to turn their computer on? And it wouldn’t be too hard to make it boot up without exploding prematurely, anyway.
The whole body scanner image in question is a fake.
Ok this is all good. What about someone on a wheelchair? Would this work out? A pat down could be problematic, unless they’re wanded. I’ve not heard talk about this situation.
#39 – There is a separate procedure for individuals in wheelchairs; sometimes they remove them from the chair into an airport wheelchair, x-ray the one they use and sometimes give it back or send it with luggage. Reason why they always board individuals with physical disabilities and children first, so that they can roll them into the plane, put them in the seat and put the wheelchair under the plane. You can also check the leaked operations manual from the TSA regarding this if you want the detailed solution specifically for the U.S
If you don’t want someone to see your junk, don’t go out in public.
Wouldn’t it be cool if being a member of Congress required you to post hi-res nude pics of yourself to an open website? Might create a little humility in those assholes.
Test:
#38. What was pent up, and to what degree?
All others: What part of the headline were you NOT responding to?
In the future, all atoms, molecules and life forms allowed to fly will be accounted for.
#42 Buzz – not sure what your asking? Thought i would give a detailed reason as to why i object against the t-ray scanner. Don’t disagree with the pic being fake, but did post 2 images in my post that were not fake and far more provoking.
hhopper: apologies, sir.
I would rather sit on a plane with 200 naked Muslims than one clothed with a bomb in his crotch.
This scanner stuff is the best thing to ever happen. It annoys the superstitious set, of all superstitions and it pisses off the ACLU.
The scanners aren’t supposed to be connected to anything that could relay the image. So it this were a real scan. It would be a test image that was recorded for training or scanner sales demonstration. Not from any airport scanners in use. And the near total absence of any blouse ir bra buttons, seems, etc, makes me think it is a fake. She would have to be wearing a paper top, (or NOTHING) for no traces to show. So I suspect the “jeans” outlines and belt buckle were faked. And the photo faker forgot the blouse outlines.
I’m sure this anti-scanner propaganda is mainly being fueled by the Airports lobby. Who don’t want to pay to install them everywhere. I object to them for a different reason. They wouldn’t have seen the crotch bomb. It still shows more visual information that is necessary. Operators have to ignore too much detail, to see something hinky. And not all operators will be skilled enough, to detect more obvious devices. Training is usually last, when it comes to budgeting. Basically, it’s overkill. And moves us further down the slippery slope of being a police state nation.
Less techie explosive chemical and metal detectors, would be all that’s needed. But wouldn’t command as high a price tag. Nor provide as much Security Theater. I shudder to think this could be getting us use to much worse, in the future.
Point is:
Do you really want your mother or grandmother forced to submit to this?