It seems that the first of 150 full body scanners that are planned to be installed in United States airports are going to be installed in Boston, Massachusetts next week. The plan is to install three machines at Logan International Airport, according to reports from the homeland security official who spoke on behalf of the announcement. On top of this, officials plan on installing another machine at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

The rest of the 150 machines, that were bought with $25 million from President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus plan, are expected to be installed in other airports by the end of June. The use of these scanners in airports is key to the Obama administration’s plans to improve airport security. These body scanners have been available for many years; however, the development of them has been slow due to objection from privacy advocates.

After a Nigerian man allegedly attempted to blow up a plane that was bond for the United States on Christmas Day, people have been trying very hard to get airport security up. The passenger allegedly hid the explosives in his underwear. These materials went undetected as he went through screening in Nigeria and Amsterdam.

Had the man passed through a body scanner, then the explosive bomb never would have made it on the plane in the first place. Although his attempt to blow up the plane failed, the people on that plane were just seconds away from meeting the end of the road.

These machines show the body’s contours on a computer stationed in a private room near security checkpoints. A person’s face is never shown with the body image. Thus, the person’s identity is never actually known by the screener.