Scanners

Full body scanners were installed at the airport.

There are full body scanners at this airport.

Some claim that full-body scanners violate the Fourth Amendment.

Full body scanners perform a virtual strip search.

The helmets are equipped with portable thermal scanners.

Optic scanners, which cost about $100,000, are the most technologically-advanced part of the process. They are programmed to identify certain types of objects, like plastic water and milk bottles. When the scanner “sees” one, it signals dozens of air fountains on the conveyor belt, to blow it onto a separate conveyor.

Experts say no company has put barcode technology to better use than Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas. By nineteen eighty-eight, all Wal-Mart stores used laser bar code scanners. Highly detailed records on its products, and how they were selling, helped Wal-Mart keep costs down. Today, Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest corporation.