British and American scientists are apparently helping detectives at New Scotland Yard to develop a revolutionary mobile scanner which is able to detect weapons such as hidden guns, bombs and knives being carried in the street.
According to a report by crime correspondent Stewart Tendler in The Times (dated Saturday 8 November 2003), "The Machine" – as the new gizmo has been dubbed – could "change the face of policing around the world".

By using the scanner, officers will be able to see the outline of dangerous implements under clothing, and then intercept criminals and/or terrorists before they strike. This would obviously help in the battle to stop suicide bombers by pinpointing incendiary devices packed with bolts and nails.

That said, police may well have to fight civil liberties groups to deploy the new technology as the scanner reveals intimate body detailing, which could easily be construed as an infringement of peoples' privacy.

In use, the device harnesses technology known as passive millimetre-wave scanning to pick up harmless radiation from objects on a special camera using a waveband between infrared and microwave. On this wavelength, clothes emit almost no radiation and the scanner screen shows the human body as a dull, grey-coloured shape. Hard objects are well highlighted in a bright, white light.

Tendler's report suggests that the scanners can pick out plastic and ceramic materials as well as metal (the former now being favoured by weapons makers), and is much faster than traditional X-ray machines.

Source

SMT