ust when you thought airport security couldn’t get any more stringent, think again. A new high-tech security device that James Bond would surely covet may be making its way to terminals around the world soon, and chances are you won’t even know it.

As a kid, I always wanted a pair of X-ray glasses. Not only did I naively buy into the notion that this technology existed, but I also thought I could easily obtain it by cutting out a few labels from my cereal boxes and mailing them away with a SASE. Sadly, I’ve come to realize that technology like this doesn’t exist – until recently, that is.

A new device created by the aptly named British company, ThruVision, provides those with it the ability to get their Peeping Tom on. Thankfully, it won’t be available for purchase from your local electronics store, so don’t worry about creepers cashing in and robbing you of your modesty.

Conversely, the same can’t be said about airport security. The machine may someday be deployed at airport terminals and allow those straight-faced security guards to up their ammo (on a side note, would it kill them to smile once in a while?). After all, why not suffer through some forced exhibitionism? It’s all in the name of the War on Terror, right?

The device itself is one bore of NASA quality technology. Originally, it was designed for use in space, as a way to see through the ozone layer or clouds of interstellar space dust. Then, the company thought the next logical extension – why not see through clothes if we can permeate the ozone layer? Thus marked the redevelopment of the device into a camera for use at airports, banks, and other establishments where a high level of security is required. In actuality, ThruVision is a spin-off from one of the United Kingdom’s most prominent physics research centres, the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.