The ThruVis camera, small enough to be hidden, can see through clothes and detect concealed objects as people walk by, the company said. Smaller weapons, such as handguns, can be seen at 20 feet.
Mr. Doffman said the equipment is already in use at some airports, which he wouldn’t identify, and “we are seeing really renewed interest at the moment.”
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has been working with British defense-technology company QinetiQ Group PLC on a body scanner aimed at finding possible weapons at a range of about 50 feet.
It has seen limited use at some airports and other transport hubs, the Farnborough-based company said. QinetiQ in 2014 won a TSA contract to reduce the size of its scanner for potential wider use.
The European Union has been gradually stepping up its efforts to detect explosives at airports. After years of screening checked bags, it last year introduced explosive trace detection equipment at the security checkpoints where passengers pass into the boarding area.
Many of the current systems to detect explosives such as triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which was used in the Brussels attacks, require using sensors close to the explosives or taking a swab.
Detecting the explosive from afar is more of a challenge, though “there are many, many companies trying,” said Jimmie Oxley, an explosive-materials expert at the University of Rhode Island.
International regulators are weighing action. The International Civil Aviation Organization, the United Nations’ aviation-oversight body, last week said security provisions for all areas of airports are undergoing a review.
“Effective, sustainable security in public spaces poses complex challenges,” ICAO President Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu said. The group reviewing security plans to meet next month, he said.
The same is true for mass transit and public spaces. The blast inside a Brussels subway car on March 22 killed another 16 people.