How realistic is threat image projection for X-ray baggage screening?
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Author (Corporation)
Publication date
13.03.2022
Typ of student thesis
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Collections
Type
01A - Journal article
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Parent work
Sensors
Special issue
DOI of the original publication
Link
Series
Series number
Volume
22
Issue / Number
6
Pages / Duration
1-15
Patent number
Publisher / Publishing institution
MDPI
Place of publication / Event location
Basel
Edition
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Abstract
At airports, security officers (screeners) inspect X-ray images of passenger baggage in order to prevent threat items (bombs, guns, knives, etc.) from being brought onto an aircraft. Because threat items rarely occur, many airports use a threat-image-projection (TIP) system, which projects pre-recorded X-ray images of threat items onto some of the X-ray baggage images in order to improve the threat detection of screeners. TIP is regulatorily mandated in many countries and is also used to identify officers with insufficient threat-detection performance. However, TIP images sometimes look unrealistic because of artifacts and unrealistic scenarios, which could reduce the efficacy of TIP. Screeners rated a representative sample of TIP images regarding artifacts identified in a pre-study. We also evaluated whether specific image characteristics affect the occurrence rate of artifacts. 24% of the TIP images were rated to display artifacts and 26% to depict unrealistic scenarios, with 34% showing at least one of the two. With two-thirds of the TIP images having been perceived as realistic, we argue that TIP still serves its purpose, but artifacts and unrealistic scenarios should be reduced. Recommendations on how to improve the efficacy of TIP by considering image characteristics are provided.
Keywords
aviation security, X-ray imaging, human-machine interaction, X-ray baggage screening, threat image projection, visual search
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ISBN
ISSN
1424-8220
Language
English
Created during FHNW affiliation
Yes
Strategic action fields FHNW
Publication status
Published
Review
Peer review of the complete publication
Open access category
Gold
License
Citation
Riz à Porta, R., Sterchi, Y., & Schwaninger, A. (2022). How realistic is threat image projection for X-ray baggage screening? Sensors, 22(6), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22062220