BWI serves as air security test lab

Relax. Work your way to the checkpoint. Now smile for the guys in the camera room.

The nation's top homeland security official came to BWI on Monday to unveil new measures aimed at easing stress for airline travelers while still catching terrorist threats - including a much ballyhooed peek-a-boo body scan.

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff formally announced that BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport will serve as a test site for the measures, dubbed Checkpoint Evolution.

"Everybody who's been to a checkpoint knows it's not a relaxing experience," Mr. Chertoff said.

"We want travelers to get on that plane as quick as possible."

Among the most hyped technology were two "millimeter wave portals" set up at the Concourse B, home to Southwest Airlines. The portals give Transportation Security Administration officers the ability to see items hidden on a person, although passengers must still remove their shoes.

The scanners clearly reveal all the contours of a person's body through clothing, which has raised privacy concerns among some airline passengers and civil liberties advocates.

Faces are obscured, and staff monitoring the scanners are in a separate room. The images will not be kept on file, according to the TSA.