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By: Luis Martnez David Prez

1 Advanced Imaging

2 Cargo container radiation scanning

3 Biological weapons detection

4 Face recognition

5 Explosives detection

Now
The first advanced passenger scanners in the USA (X-ray backscatter)were installed in 2007. There are now about 488 machines at 78 U.S. airports. The revealing images have rose privacy concerns

Previous 9/11
Advanced imaging technology was not used to screen people prior to 9/11.

Now
All cargo entering the United States overland is scanned, as is 99 percent entering by sea. Existing scanners, however, have been fraught with high false-positive rates, and in July, the United States announced is developing a next-generation scanners in order to solve the operational problems.

Previuos 9/11
In 2003, there was only one radiation scanner at a U.S. seaport and none along the U.S.-Mexico border. But 63 percent of the cargo entering the United States through Canada was scanned.

Now
The Bio-Seeq Plus, from Smiths Detection, of Watford, England, can detect anthrax, plague, and other agents,weighs 7 pounds, and provides results in a little over an hour. However, handheld detectors still arent reliable enough to justify public health measures, such as quarantining.

Previuos 9/11
The only reliable portable bioweapons detectors were large mobile labs; the U.S. Armys was housed in a Humvee and operated by four technicians.

Now
Engineers and computer scientists made a 20-fold improvement in accuracy between 2000 and 2006. Today, Facebook, Apples iPhoto, and Googles Picasa all have facial-recognition capabilities. In August, a German official asked Facebook to disable the feature, claiming that it violated European privacy laws..

Previuos 9/11
In 2000, a few early commercial incarnations of face recognition were tested. Their accuracy in identifying a face faltered when the subjects distance from the camera or facial expression varied or when the lighting changed.

Now
Since 9/11, 1200 explosivetrace detectors have been installed to screen airline baggage. At their peak, there were also 94 puffers in 37 U.S. airports, but the TSA started phasing them out in 2008 because of high maintenance costs.

Previuos 9/11
In 2002, airline passengers and cargo were rarely swabbed for explosives (those swabs were run through chemical-trace detectors). No explosive-tracedetection portal machines were used. Called puffers, these machines puff air at a passenger and sniff for explosives and other chemical contraband.

Input Devices In order to communicate to technological devices we use input devices. In the early days of computing was used punch card readers. In this moment, the most common input devices are the mouse and keyboard.

New Input devices

Touch screens are becoming an increasingly popular pointing device, and someday may replace mice altogether. Other forms of pointing devices, such as motion controllers on the Wii game console, may also reveal the direction of input devices in the future.

Voice recognition Voice recognition is nothing new. For twenty years we've been able to talk to personal computers, But it was a far cry from accuracy. Simple, single-word directives, paired with a limited set of objects, "Play album", "Take photo", "Send email". When you restrict the set of possibilities, the job becomes easier for the computer.