If spotting a terrorist amongst a crowd of citizens could be
as simple as detecting non-verbal cues from biometric sensors in the
environment, every government in the world would probably want a piece of the
new security technology.
A team of scientists at the US Homeland Security Advanced
Research Project Agency (HSARPA) are currently immersed in research to determine whether various high-tech devices can be exploited to spot a person in a crowd with “malicious
intents.” The project, run by the same Pentagon agency that developed Stealth aircraft and the Internet, began in 2007 and is based on the unproven premise that
technology can identify and interpret physiological, behavioral and
paralinguistic cues from someone with mayhem in mind.
Sure, the research project might be reminiscent of Tom
Cruise sci-fi thriller Minority Report (2004), in which “pre-crime” prevention
techniques were implemented using sophisticated psychic technology to arrest
murderers. According to Bob Burns, No. 2 at the Homeland Security Advanced
Research Project Agency, “We’re looking pre-event.”
In particular, researchers have linked high-resolution
cameras, low-level lasers, location tracking and biometric monitoring devices
to measure pupil dilation, skin temperature, fidgeting rate, heart rate and
other theoretical giveaways.
The work on mal-intent, which has cost roughly $20 million in government funding, represents a future in screening technology where the target to be identified
is not the explosive device, but the person behind it. There is still large
room for improvement, however, as US Homeland Security has in the past failed to
detect travelers who were later connected to failed terrorist plots in New York
and Virginia, deadly incidents in Afghanistan, India and Somalia, and jihadist
training in Pakistan.
More at the
Los
Angeles Times.