New body scanning camera aims to detect concealed guns and bombs through body heat

ASHBURN, Va. - Keeping kids safe in school is a top priority and a Northern Virginia company believes it has the solution with a new high-tech device.

Back on Valentine's Day, 17 students and staff members were killed at a Florida high school by a former student in a massacre that sent shockwaves across the world. It also raised the volume on the debate for gun control and the Second Amendment.

However, Thruvision is hoping to bring attention back to safety and security measures.

Assault rifles and semi-automatic rifles have been used in some of the most recent and deadliest mass shootings and went undetected until it was too late.

Thruvision showed how their technology works by hiding a concealed replica of an AK-47 hidden inside a down jacket. It would likely go completely undetected by the naked eye or even a trained surveillance camera operator.

"If you're before the metal detector, depending on the school security operations at the school, you can see these types of weapons very clearly at a distance," said Kevin Gramer, vice president of Thruvision Americas.

But through their people-screening camera that simply reads body heat, the weapon would be seen obscuring a person's heat signature as they approached.

The Transportation Security Administration has tested Thruvision's technology at the Los Angeles Metro Rail system and at Penn Station in New York City.

However, not everyone is excited about it.

"That is a search under the Fourth Amendment. That is an invasion of your privacy," said Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union. "Can it see medical appliances that you might have on your body or is a very, very rough? If it's very, very rough, then it will probably be making all kinds of false positives. It will mistake all kinds of innocent things you might have on you for weapons or bombs."

However, Thruvision stands by the product.

"You can't really tell if I am a man or a woman," said Gramer. "There is no anatomical detail given here. I would say nobody is afraid to stand in front of this system unless you got something to hide."

The company maintains the machine works as thermal imagery and is completely safe because it emits no radiation.

Each unit roughly costs $100,000.