New TSA Tech Could Make Airport Pat-Downs Touchless

The Transportation Security Administration is exploring a hands-off solution to airport screening that could see agents using virtual reality technology to "feel" passengers' bodies without actually touching them.

The TSA has already implemented a Touchless ID process, which utilizes facial recognition technology for fast identity verification, but now the TSA wants to go a step further with the potential for touchless airport pat-downs. According to a release from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), researchers at the TSA are looking into what they call a "Wearable Sensor for Contactless Physical Assessment (WSCPA)".

The innovation, which is in the conceptual state of development, would see TSA agents using VR goggles and haptic feedback gloves to pat-down airline passengers at security checkpoints without touching them.

The tech would use touchless sensors to "register the object's contours" and "generate feedback to physically replicate the target object," which would enable "physical sensation and assessment without direct contact," according to an information sheet published by the DHS last week.

Citing the "key benefits", the DHS said the VR tech could prevent harm when touching unsafe objects, preserve privacy for individuals during the screening process or provide physical awareness for visually-impaired individuals.

The "wearable accessory" would feature touchless sensors, cameras and a haptic feedback pad. "The touchless sensor system could be enabled through millimeter wave scanning, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), or backscatter X-ray technology," the DHS explains.

Going into more detail about exactly how it works, the agency continued: "A user fits the device over their hand. When the touchless sensors in the device are within range of the targeted object, the sensors in the pad detect the target object’s contours to produce sensor data.

"The contour detection data runs through a mapping algorithm to produce a contour map. The contour map is then relayed to the back surface that contacts the user’s hand through haptic feedback to physically simulate a sensation of the virtually detected contours in real time."

While the tech is still in the conceptual phase, patent filings by DHS researchers suggest that the agency has been working on it since 2022. Graphics in the patents filings show how the tech would be used to virtually pat down someone's "belt-buckle" or "private body zone".

One of the patents claims that “embodiments improve the passenger’s experience, because they reduce or eliminate physical contacts with the passenger.” It also notes that only the person using the goggles will be able to see the image produced and that only limited parts of a person's body will be shown “in sensitive areas of the body, instead of the whole body image, to further maintain the passenger’s privacy.”