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Posts with tag scanner

German Scientists Try to Clean Up 'Naked Scanners'

German Scientists Try to Clean Up Naked Scanner
Airports worldwide are starting to see new full-body scan machines that have the unfortunate side effect of revealing your goodies. Of course, the fact that security agents get an eye-full of your naughty bits has some privacy advocates concerned and has prevented them becoming common place in most countries.

Reuters reports that German scientists are looking to address some of these concerns. They've taken the scanners into the lab to see if they can produce an image with the private parts automatically blurred out. Critics of the highly detailed scanner dubbed it the "naked scanner," and are spearheading the effort to prove the scanner can effectively reveal weapons without producing an image of a passenger's naked body.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has previously defended the scanners, saying the images produced were family friendly enough to, "make the cover of Reader's Digest." After seeing the images, however, we can safely say that the only way 'Reader's Digest' would ever publish images from the scan is if they were purchased by 'Hustler.' [From: Reuters]

How to Turn Your Scanner Into a Grainy Camera


Here's a DIY project not for the weak-of-heart (or impatient). MAKE, a magazine completely dedicated to the art of DIY, has intriguing directions on how to turn your flat-bed scanner into a nifty camera capable of taking grainy black and white photos.

You probably have a scanner sitting around somewhere (likely untouched and collecting dust since 1999) and the magnifying glass can be had for $.99 from a local store, but we're pretty sure most of you don't have foam core on hand. Unless you're an arts and crafts fanatic ordering the foam core to create the focusing mechanism for this scanner-camera probably isn't worth while.

It's a neat project, but seeing as how you could probably create a similar effect with a digital camera and 'Photoshop' we cant imagine wasting the time and man hours to build this one-trick-pony. Check out the video above for step by step instructions. [From: MAKE, Via: GeekSugar]

How to Modify Your Scanner to Be a Camera

Thanks to GeekSugar.com, we located this video tutorial on how to convert your flatbed scanner into a camera on Make.com.

Since even inexpensive digital cameras produce pretty good pictures these days, and since you can use a scanner to accurately scan your traditional photographs, we're thinking of this project as more of a digital party trick than anything else.

And while the folks at GeekSugar refer to the scanner-camera's pictures as "vintage-y," we think they look a lot more more like first-generation, black and white digital pictures than first-generation, black and white tin types. That, of course, begs the question: How old does something have to be in order to be classified as "vintage?" Anyway, head on after the break for a more detailed writeup on how to mod your scanner to take pictures. [From Make, via GeekSugar]
Engadget

SecuriScan Shoe Scanner Could Make Airport Lines Shorter

Huge shocker here: removing your shoes at airport security causes massive headaches and makes the wait longer for everyone. Now that we're all good with Captain Obvious' latest headline, let us point you to one prototype that's looking to solve said dilemma. SecuriScan, which has been developed by Professor Wuqiang Yang at the University of Manchester, would theoretically be able to "detect and pinpoint suspicious objects instantly," all without requiring passengers to remove their kicks.

Better still, the system uses electric and magnetic sensing instead of a radiation source, which could also address safety concerns while helping you get where you're going more quickly.

Moving forward, Yang hopes to develop a more advanced and realistic prototype for testing, and just in case you were doubting this guy's determination, he's also investigating a handheld version that could hastily screen abandoned luggage or packages.

[Via Physorg, image courtesy of ChangeAirportSecurity]

Use Your Cell Phone Pics to Search for Information on the Web



We've learned now how cell phones can display bar codes or other symbols in lieu of airline, concert or ballgame tickets. If you happen to be a Sprint subscriber, though, your cell phone could soon be used as a scanner itself – but this new service goes well beyond bar codes.

A new visual search service from Thrrum claims it can scan just about anything that contains text and return relevant information to the user's phone. Think book covers, product labels, even train schedules. Essentially, as the company puts it, any text that you see around you becomes a hyperlink that can be "clicked" upon with your camera phone.

The user takes a snapshot of the product, sends it to m@thrrum.com for the Thrrum MMS Search, and the service responds with extended information on what it finds.

Thrrum also is offering a Visual Browser that users can download to their phones so they don't have to send a message.

For now the service, which is in beta testing, is free to any Sprint subscriber (although the Visual Browser does cost $5.99 for 12 months access). Standard text messaging and data rates will apply, of course. [Source: BetaNews.]

New Super-CT Scanner Could Change Medicine

New Super CT Scanner Unveiled
We love our technology around here, but most of it isn't going to change the world or save lives. Sure -- that USB Humping Dog is funny, but it isn't really gonna help you when you start having heart trouble. Today, though, we bring you word of a technological development with a bit more consequence for your health and well-being.

The Brilliance CT scanner was unveiled yesterday after a month long trial run at the Metro Health Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The new CT scanner takes more images of a wider selection of the body, in a shorter period of time, all while exposing patients to 80 percent less radiation than tradition scans.

The Brilliance CT machine takes an image by passing X-Rays through the body at a rate of up to 256 pulses every 0.3 seconds. Thats fast enough to capture the incredibly detailed image of the hear tabove without the blurring cause by the heart beat. The scanner creates incredibly high resolution 3D images that allows individual blood vessels to be seen, and the images can be manipulated in 3D. This affords doctors unprecedented views of the internal workings of the body to spot things such as minuscule tumors in the heart and lungs.

From the Daily Mail

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