Do-It-Yourself Security Screening Under Review for U.S. Airports

Airline passengers may someday conduct their own security screening using technology the Department of Homeland Security is investing in now.

DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate on Wednesday announced funding for a San Francisco technology company to develop passenger self-screening systems akin to the self-checkouts common at grocery stores. The award of about $387,000 is part of a broader effort by DHS and its Transportation Security Administration to streamline travelers’ security experience through an initiative called Screening at Speed.

Voxel Radar plans to develop prototype sensors to scan passengers and refer them for additional screening if needed. That will give transportation security officers more time for “strategic analysis,” DHS said in a press release.

Self-screening technology will “improve the quality of screening from a security perspective and provide an innovative and convenient experience for airline passengers,” John Fortune, manager of the Screening at Speed program, said in a statement. It will also keep passengers and TSA officers safer in pandemic situations, he said.

DHS last month awarded separate contracts worth $2.8 million for Micro-X Inc. to work on concept and prototype design for self-screening. The agency listed streamlined airport screening as a top research and development priority earlier this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ellen M. Gilmer in Washington at egilmer@bloombergindustry.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah Babbage at sbabbage@bgov.com; Loren Duggan at lduggan@bgov.com