The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is planning to deploy new shoe scanning technology within the next few years in order to gather feedback from travelers and TSA officers.
The scanner, which has been in development for several years, uses millimeter waves that pass through the sole of the shoe and sends 3D data to a computer for review. Currently, the footwear scan takes approximately two seconds and data processing about five seconds. The shoe scanner could potentially be incorporated into the floor of passenger screening systems enabling passengers and their shoes to be screened at the same time.
The shoe scanner is part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate’s Screening at Speed program, which is working with the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to develop improved detection capabilities and a more user-friendly passenger experience.
Central to the initiative is the High Definition-Advanced Imaging Technology (HD-AIT) which also relies on millimeter waves. The data obtained by the HD-AIT passenger scanner is processed by an algorithm that alerts the TSA officer of an anomaly by presenting identifiers on a generic representative human image, enabling secondary screening where required. It is hoped that this new technology may eventually allow passengers to be screened at walking speeds.
The Screening at Speed Program has worked with PNNL to create two versions of the HD-AIT scanner – a standalone passenger screening system and a retrofit kit. One of these retrofit kits entered an evaluation phase in a near real-world environment in May 2024. The Department of Homeland Security recently said that plans are in the works to conduct an operational assessment of the full HD-AIT passenger screening system, although it is likely to be some years before full rollout at airports.
Read more about the Screening at Speed progam here.