Researchers in Northern Ireland say they're hoping to develop technology to slash the time needed for airport security scanning.
A team at Queen's University Belfast has been awarded £1 million (€850,000) to work on the next-generation technology over five years.
They're hoping to cut the time it takes for scanners to collect and process data from 10 seconds to less than a tenth of a second.
Lead researcher Dr Okan Yurduseven also says he wants to develop technology that is more effective at detecting weapons than the current systems.
Dr Yurduseven explained that current scanners take around 10 seconds to reconstruct an image, which then needs to be manually checked by staff.
He observed: “While this may not sound like very long, we have to take into account the huge volume of people filtering through airport security every day and this causes huge queues.
“More worryingly is that the current system has been investigated and issues have been raised in terms of how many illegal items could go unnoticed.”
He added: "[The award] will allow us to create technology that is fully electronic, rather than manually operated, and this will allow the scanners to process the images in real-time – we think the entire scan process should be complete in less than a tenth of a second.
“By integrating machine learning into the design process, we will substantially reduce the false alarm rates in detecting threat objects."
While the security scanners are mostly used at airports here, other countries use them in schools and train stations.
