Mail screening apparatus

A mail screening apparatus, comprising:

• a casing having a base and a top housing mounted over the base in a spaced-apart relationship, the base and the top housing defining a mail inspection bay therebetween comprising a terahertz inspection zone and a metal detection zone, the base comprising an inspection counter for supporting a piece of mail to be screened at the terahertz inspection zone and the metal detection zone, the inspection counter allowing light therethrough at the terahertz inspection zone;
• a light generating assembly mounted in the top housing and configured to generate an inspection light beam having an optical frequency in the terahertz frequency range, and project said inspection light beam into the base through the terahertz inspection zone;
• a metal detector provided in said inspection counter in registry with the metal detection zone;
• a light collecting assembly comprising an image capture device and a camera objective, the light collecting assembly being positioned and configured to receive and detect the inspection light beam downstream the terahertz inspection zone;
• a display integrated in a front portion of the top housing;
• a processing unit configured to:
• process a response from the metal detector and generate an alarm when said response of the metal detector is above a given threshold;
• process of image data from the image capturing device;
• and
• display the processed images on the display.