WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (WWLP) – Bradley International Airport has unveiled new technology to keep passengers safe.

The eight new machines use a Computed Tomography (CT) scan, like the CT scan you get at the hospital. The CT scan gives the TSA a three dimensional image that’s much better than the 2-D image they get from an X-Ray.

The scanners allow passengers to keep items like cell phones and laptops in their bags rather than having to put them in a separate bin.

22News spoke with Dan Velez, spokesperson for TSA New England, who further described how these scanners work, “What they do is they enable our Transportation Security Officers to take a 3D image and manipulate it, rotate it 360 degrees so that they can thoroughly check and see what’s inside the bag.”

This leads to less hands-on searching, since the scanners can more easily detect items than the previous 2D scanners. This will save a lot of time for both passengers and the TSA.

There are also plans to add two additional scanners at Bradley later this summer. It’s all part of the big plan to expand the airport from seeing six or seven million passengers a year to ten million passengers a year.