Story here. It's not an "x-ray," but more like radar. Same thing they use (to the limited extent it has "use") at many airports. I'd say there are some serious Fourth Amendment issues posed here (compare the Supreme Court case on using passive thermal detection to spot "grow houses" through walls).
The article suggests that it can see thru the sides of autos. If have fiberglass panels, I wouldn't be surprised. But since the entire idea is that it reflects off metal, it's seem to me that seeing through a metal car body would be impossible, absent an enormously powerful signal and some means to read the return in very fine detail, perhaps not even then.
If that radar can see firearms through the sheet metal of a car body, it is probably emitting enough energy to cook things.
Such as the odd cornea or testicle.
Probably also enough to disrupt smartphones.
Unless there's a trail of burnt-smell body parts and whacked modern electronics wherever this radar went, I submit that its ability to see into metal cars is a boast intended to dissuade unlawful carriers.
I say let's have some fun with the program. Send all your friends christmas presents that are solid stainless pistol shaped paper weights. A UPS truck full of these should be enough to shut down a couple blocks of town for at least six hours. This should give the NYPD boys in blue lots of time to figure out that the technology can be exploited for our viewing pleasure.
These are kind of like radar but they are also actually x-ray scanners, and they can see all the way through a metal car. They also have gamma ray versions. To see a home made version and learn about how it works, search Youtube for "DIY X-ray backscatter imaging system (airport body scanner)"
Probably a replacement for "stop and frisk" of pedestrians. For the reasons stated, cars won't be a target.
They had one of these at an Air Force Base I worked at. They used it mostly for scanning commercial trucks at the commercial gate, but sometimes they would position it outside the main gate. In that case you were directed to a side parking lot where you had two choices- be scanned with your car, or be banned from accessing the base for one year.
So it can detect my Grand Dads old revolver but it will miss the polymer Glock. That is such an improvement.
"miss the polymer Glock" probably not, the plastic is infused with metal salts that the Xray will pick up just fine.
"they are also actually x-ray scanners" so it's not just cooking corneas but irradiating people with ionizing radiation too? that's much more life-affirming.
A newish Honda Civic may have fiberglass door panels, but that '78 Eldorado is good old American steel. It's a good thing for the homies that they ride hoopdies.
@David Thomas: Backscatter radar and Xrays are two totally different things.
First of all, an Xray has a wavelength of about 10 picometers, meaning a frequency that is higher than that of visible light. A backscatter system uses a wavelength of about 1 centimeter, meaning a frequency of about 30 gigahertz, which is much less than visible light.
Each does different things, and in a different way.