I think their premise is that a device which has been converted to a bomb large enough to cause total destruction of its target would have had the majority of its components removed thus rendering it non-functional. Following that "logic" a device which powers on has a much lower chance of being an explosive device.

That doesn't make sense. A simple x-ray would show that the internal components have been removed.

I believe the problem is that plastic explosives and a trigger mechanism look very similar to the cells and relegation circuitry in a NiMH or LiIon battery so an X-Ray can't really distinguish them.

What does this do to people with extra batteries? Do they all have to be charged? Would you have to put them in your phone/laptop to prove it?

> What does this do to people with extra batteries? Do they all have to be charged? Would you have to put them in your phone/laptop to prove it?

What about modern laptops that have multiple discrete batteries (i.e. modern Macs) - I would guess that you could remove 2-3 of the 4-5 packs and still have a "functioning" laptop, albeit with a much shorter uptime.

I would assume it's an effort/sophistication thing, just raising the minimum bar to weed out/discourage people and lessen the number of attempts in total.

I'm certainly not trying to imply that it does. The TSA themselves have been attempting to use the excuse that their scans, x-ray or otherwise, are somehow incapable of detecting the difference between a real device and a modified one. I for one, having see many of these x-ray screens during travel, believe that is some kind of nonsense.

That said I think a possible interesting question to ask is whether or not a scanning system could be implemented that is able to determine whether a devices internal components have been modified based on scans provided my OEM's.

edit: spelling.

Because a raspberry pi is SOOO large...

They want to unlock your phone and poke around. If it's 'out of battery' that's not an excuse.