The TSA Blog

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Lady Gaga’s Handcuffs & The TSA Permitted/Prohibited Items List

You may have heard about Lady Gaga recently being permitted to take handcuffs through a checkpoint at LAX. Some assumed handcuffs were prohibited, and were very surprised to find out they’re not. Why not, you might ask? They’re not a threat. You can’t do any real damage with a pair of handcuffs and if you really wanted to tie someone’s hands behind their back, there are many other ways you could do it. I’m sure you’re thinking of a few right now. Speaking of tying things together, I’d like to tie the prohibited items list into this post. It’s one of the most popular TSA related searches out there, so I thought I’d let you in on our cool new mobile/web tool.

Our new MyTSA App (Available as an iPhone App or Mobile Web App) amongst other great features has a “Can I Bring My…” tool. You can type in the name of the item you’re curious about and it will tell you if the item is permitted or not. If it’s not included in the list, you have the option of submitting it to us for addition. We even added “tatting shuttle.” Yep, we had to Google it too and they are permitted)

Just so you know, you don’t have to have a mobile device, “Can I Bring My…” is also on the web.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when using “Can I Bring My…”

Don’t type the brand name of the deodorant – but do type if it’s roll-on or stick.
Don’t type “food” – type what type of food – brownie, Jell-o, apple, pudding. Food is too generic.
Type “disposable razor,” not “2 disposable razors”

And sorry, the tool doesn’t give answers for mother-in-law, screaming child, wife, or ex-husband.

Get MyTSA on Your Mobile Device

Get the MyTSA App from iTunes

Blogger Bob
TSA Blog Team

Friday, September 17, 2010

Advanced Imaging Technology Automated Target Recognition

Automated Target Recognition (ATR) has been making the news a lot lately. You may remember when I discussed ATR back in April of this year. So what in the heck is ATR? It’s software that’s used with Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) and displays a computer generated, generic human image (you've probably heard it referred to as an Avatar) on the monitor attached to the AIT machine. It highlights areas on the image to show where anomalies may exist. It does not display the actual image of the passenger like the current technology does.

ATR provides additional privacy protections and eliminates the need to staff an extra officer in a private room. We’re very interested in this next generation software, but ATR in its current form does not meet TSA’s screening requirements, however, we’re working closely with manufacturers to find a software that does.

It would be a win for us since we won’t have to staff as many officers and it will be a win for passengers who have voiced concerns over privacy. While we’re excited about the potential of this new technology, we’ve just started testing it, so stay tuned for more information at a later date.

Blogger Bob

TSA Blog Team