Full body scanners with privacy

ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Private parts and all! A recent USA Today/Gallup poll shows most Americans are OK with the Transporation Security Administation using full body scanners to stop terrorists from boarding a plane. Even if that means revealing a person's private parts in the scanned images.

Currently, 19 airports in the U.S. are using the new scanners that reveal plastics and powders. But a Central Florida company submits there's no need to show private parts on full body scanners. And it's got the technology to prove it. Their new anti-terror tool is called SafeScreen.

“Would-be terrorists would have to find another way to get through that checkpoint,” says Mitchel Laskey, President and CEO of Brijot Imaging Systems of Lake Mary , the company that makes SafeScreen.

“If somebody suspects you might have something on you, then the government should have a right to further inspect you,” submits Laskey.

SafeScreen measures the difference between your body's surface temperature and any object that you're wearing.

It easily detects explosives, ceramics, metals, plastics, powders, and liquids. If any of those are on you, SafeScreen sees that as a dark spot.

Different full body scanners are landing in American airports, and basically do the same thing, but they produce and store images that some people consider too private.

Brijot's images don't capture vivid images of private parts. “We don't have the opportunity to see private parts,” says Laskey.

But if SafeScreen doesn't show private parts, how would it detect potential weapons and explosives concealed around private parts? “Let's say, like the underwear bomber, who was wearing a bunch of powder on his private spots. That would show up typically as an even darker spot,” explains Laskey.

And that person then gets pulled aside. Brijot's technology has been given the Vatican's blessing, and the public acceptance by the government of Saudi Arabia, where the scanner already protects the Royal Family.

Several airports around the world already have it up and running. And so does the U.S. Marshal's Office . Laskey's biggest goal? American airports. Brijot expects to get TSA approval by the end of the year. Final assembly of SafeScreen machines takes place in Lake Mary.  Eighty percent of the suppliers for them are from Central Florida.