Airport checks that’ll let you keep shoes on

TAKING off your shoes and being frisked at airport security checks may soon be a thing of the past.

The Department of Transport has revealed eight projects on a shortlist to cut airport queues and beef up security.

Two firms have designed shoe scanners. A device by Scanna MSC of London lets you step on to it so footwear can be checked, while Security Screening Technologies from Derbyshire is developing a scanner which produces high-contrast images to be analysed by computers that recognise threats. The work could mean passengers would no longer need to remove shoes, officials said.

Sequestim of Wales has designed a screening system which uses natural radiation from passengers’ bodies and turns it into an image which reveals suspicious items. It could end frisking and the need to take off coats and jackets.

The projects share £1.8million in state funds. The firms have a year to develop functioning prototypes.