Tuesday morning travel notes

Good morning, travelers. This morning we have an interesting report from the Herald about a new security system being tested at Logan, which will help the TSA screen for passengers trying to board with concealed explosives. But this system, unlike the more controversial body-scan system, which basically gives TSA officers the up-close- and-personal on you, does it from a distance.

Logan today becomes the first US airport to test technology designed to detect explosives concealed on individuals - including improvised explosive devices and suicide vests - from a distance.
The tripod-mounted, camera-like devices have sensors that measure the energy generated by the human body. They detect possible threats blocking those emissions - including objects that are hidden under clothing. They can scan more than 300 people an hour in crowds, at distances up to 46 feet, according to QinetiQ, the UK manufacturer of the technology.
Two of the people-screening systems will be rotated through six public areas of the airport every few days, starting today with terminals A and B, according to a Transportation Security Administration source briefed on the plan.
A TSA spokeswoman declined comment, but a Logan official confirmed the systems would be in place today.
TSA officers will staff each monitoring station along with a behavior detection officer who can spot people showing signs of deception or fear of getting caught. A red-and-green-light display alerts officers to threats.
Unlike whole-body scanners, which have elicited privacy concerns because they produce under-clothes images of peoples’ bodies, the new technology will show images of people just as they are captured on a standard video camera, the TSA source said.
The TSA used the people-screening devices at the Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul airports for last year’s Democratic and Republican national conventions.