PJ Vogt

So they started testing their prototype on real-life human subjects.

Doug said the machine was testing well, was able to find those hidden guns, but the FAA needed a version that would work at an actual airport, meaning it had to be more reliable and it had to be quick.

Metal detectors were instantaneous, and you didn't want some new scanner to slow down the airport security line.

It was a process and we finally, we kind of settled on this cylindrical approach in the late 90s because it gave us more coverage on the person.

You can scan a person at different angles to get angular diversity.

The cylindrical approach led to the machine most airports have today.

You step into the cylinder, two wands sweep around you.

Each of those wands holds a panel containing hundreds of tiny antennae.

Each of the antennae is rapidly firing extremely high frequency radio waves at your body.

Because the wands sweep around you, the image of your body is a 3D holograph, not a flat 2D picture.

Doug's team had this technology up and running by the late 90s.

The technology worked that early.

It worked, but we, American society, didn't yet want it or need it.

It was a little too invasive.

All that would change, though, after the underwear bomber.

This is a clip from the Today Show back in 2008.

Matt Lauer, still the host.

The millimeter wave body scanner has been plopped, confusingly, on the streets of Manhattan, just outside of NBC Studios.

The surveillance machine is having its prime time moment.

As cameras roll, an adoring crowd cheers wildly because they're on TV, not because they're excited about millimeter waves, but it is confusing for a second.