Go On An Air Flight And Expose Your Private Parts

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

June 15, 2008 - Scanners that see through clothing installed in US airports


In the picture ... "Faces are blurred and images are not saved and cannot be transferred," said Office of Transport Security executive director Paul Retter

*************************************************
Passengers fear airport "virtual strip search"
*************************************************

The Age Australia
By Lee Taylor, Travel Reporter
October 03, 2008

http://www. news. com. au/travel/story/0,26058,24440099-5014090,00....

Children could be screened by pedophiles, while pregnant women could be exposed to radiation if the new technology is accepted, say news. com. au readers

The full-body scanner, on trial in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide airports from this month, allows screeners to detect non-metallic devices, objects and weapons concealed on a person's body.
It also reveals body outlines, organs and genitals

Readers feel the new security measure has gone too far

“Sure as heck, some customs officers will make snide remarks about young girls with breast implants and people with piercings in private locations You betcha some will appear on Facebook or MySpace,” said a post on news. com. au

“What happens in the event that a woman is screened who does not know at the time of screening that she is pregnant?” asked a reader

“Doctors advise against such X-ray procedures in the event it causes harm to the baby… where is the liability to be placed in the event of birth defects?”

Another reader asked: “What about adults being able to see effectively naked young children

“I hope the vetting for these airport security guards is rigorous”

Office of Transport Security executive director Paul Retter has assured passenger privacy would be protected

"People who do opt for the technology trial lane can do so knowing that the officer examining the images is located away from the screening lane and cannot see them," said Mr Retter

"Faces are blurred and images are not saved and cannot be transferred"

But some readers are not convinced

“The images aren't saved but what's to stop an operator taking a snapshot of the screen on their mobile phone,” said a post

However, not all feedback was negative

Some readers felt the screenings would make flying safer, and hoped the new device would do away with strip searches

“This is nothing like being strip-searched.
A strip-search is physically uncomfortable because the subject is nude and in a vulnerable situation,” said a reader

“An X-ray of your organs and genitals shown on screen in another room watched by a bored security guard is completely unobtrusive.
It's less of a pain in the arse than having to empty your pockets at the metal detectors”

Suzan of Brisbane asked: "What’s worse, being a fatty, getting scanned and being embarrassed or someone taking a weapon onto a flight and killing everyone?”


AssociatedPress - April 18, 2008 - Existing full body 3D scanner in NYC LA


Brand new SHOE scanner - Oct 13, 2008





****************************************************************************
US Homeland Security To Utilize Physiological Screeners To Pinpoint
Terrorists
****************************************************************************

AHN News
September 19, 2008

http://www. allheadlinenews. com/articles/7012355008

Upper Marloboro, MD. (AHN) - The Homeland Security Department is pilot testing at a Maryland airport a prototype of a physiological screener to spot terrorists.
The model bio-scans air travelers

The model works like a lie detector machine by indicating large fluctuations in body temperature, pulse and breathing which are likely indicators of anxiety often exhibited by a terrorist or criminal.
The prototype, called Future Attribute Screening Technology, scans passengers as they pass through a set of cameras

According to Jennifer Martin, Homeland Security consultant, the FAST picks up things often not detected by human eye

The department is on its second year of testing the system targeted to last five years.
Over 2,000 screeners have been trained by the Transportation Security Administration to observe travelers and question those who appear to be agitated or nervous

But agitation or nervousness must not be linked with criminal intent, warned Timothy Levine, Michigan State University expert on deceptive behavior. One possible cause of agitation is learning of a flight's delay. "What determines your heart rate is a whole bunch of reasons besides hostile intent... This is the whole reason behavioral profiles don't work," Levine told USA Today

The FAST is one of the measures the Homeland Security has put in place to tighten security in U.S. ports of entry.
Last week the department announced it granted $29 million to the New York City Police Department, which will attempt to prevent a radiological or nuclear attack in the Big Apple through the enhancement of regional capabilities to detect and stop illegal radioactive materials





A computer screens displays input from Homeland Security's FAST body scanner during a demonstration


DHS Under Secretary Jay Cohen, right; project manager Robert Burns, under the exit sign; and opther DHS personnel observe a demonstration of the FAST screening system


An infrared camera that comprises part of the FAST screening system


A computer screen displays information from a FAST body scanner




**********************************************************
Homeland Security Detects Terrorist Threats by Reading Your Mind
**********************************************************


Fox News
By Allison Barrie

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Baggage searches are SOOOOOO early-21st century.
Homeland Security is now testing the next generation of security screening — a body scanner that can read your mind

Most preventive screening looks for explosives or metals that pose a threat. But a new system called MALINTENT turns the old school approach on its head.
This Orwellian-sounding machine detects the person — not the device — set to wreak havoc and terror

MALINTENT, the brainchild of the cutting-edge Human Factors division in Homeland Security's directorate for Science and Technology, searches your body for non-verbal cues that predict whether you mean harm to your fellow passengers

It has a series of sensors and imagers that read your body temperature, heart rate and respiration for unconscious tells invisible to the naked eye — signals terrorists and criminals may display in advance of an attack

But this is no polygraph test. Subjects do not get hooked up or strapped down for a careful reading; those sensors do all the work without any actual physical contact.
It's like an X-ray for bad intentions

Currently, all the sensors and equipment are packaged inside a mobile screening laboratory about the size of a trailer or large truck bed, and just last week, Homeland Security put it to a field test in Maryland, scanning 144 mostly unwitting human subjects

While I'd love to give you the full scoop on the unusual experiment, testing is ongoing and full disclosure would compromise future tests

But what I can tell you is that the test subjects were average Joes living in the D.C.
area who thought they were attending something like a technology expo; in order for the experiment to work effectively and to get the testing subjects to buy in, the cover story had to be convincing

While the 144 test subjects thought they were merely passing through an entrance way, they actually passed through a series of sensors that screened them for bad intentions

Homeland Security also selected a group of 23 attendees to be civilian "accomplices" in their test.
They were each given a "disruptive device" to carry through the portal — and, unlike the other attendees, were conscious that they were on a mission

In order to conduct these tests on human subjects, DHS had to meet rigorous safety standards to ensure the screening would not cause any physical or emotional harm

So here's how it works. When the sensors identify that something is off, they transmit warning data to analysts, who decide whether to flag passengers for further questioning.
The next step involves micro-facial scanning, which involves measuring minute muscle movements in the face for clues to mood and intention

Homeland Security has developed a system to recognize, define and measure seven primary emotions and emotional cues that are reflected in contractions of facial muscles.
MALINTENT identifies these emotions and relays the information back to a security screener almost in real-time

This whole security array — the scanners and screeners who make up the mobile lab — is called "Future Attribute Screening Technology" — or FAST — because it is designed to get passengers through security in two to four minutes, and often faster

If you're rushed or stressed, you may send out signals of anxiety, but FAST isn't fooled. It's already good enough to tell the difference between a harried traveler and a terrorist.
Even if you sweat heavily by nature, FAST won't mistake you for a baddie

"If you focus on looking at the person, you don't have to worry about detecting the device itself," said Bob Burns, MALINTENT's project leader.
And while there are devices out there that look at individual cues, a comprehensive screening device like this has never before been put together

While FAST's batting average is classified, Undersecretary for Science and Technology Adm.
Jay Cohen declared the experiment a "home run"

As cold and inhuman as the electric eye may be, DHS says scanners are unbiased and nonjudgmental. "It does not predict who you are and make a judgment, it only provides an assessment in situations," said Burns.
"It analyzes you against baseline stats when you walk in the door, it measures reactions and variations when you approach and go through the portal"

But the testing — and the device itself — are not without their problems.
This invasive scanner, which catalogues your vital signs for non-medical reasons, seems like an uninvited doctor's exam and raises many privacy issues

But DHS says this is not Big Brother. Once you are through the FAST portal, your scrutiny is over and records aren't kept. "Your data is dumped," said Burns.
"The information is not maintained — it doesn't track who you are"

DHS is now planning an even wider array of screening technology, including an eye scanner next year and pheromone-reading technology by 2010

The team will also be adding equipment that reads body movements, called "illustrative and emblem cues.
" According to Burns, this is achievable because people "move in reaction to what they are thinking, more or less based on the context of the situation"

FAST may also incorporate biological, radiological and explosive detection, but for now the primary focus is on identifying and isolating potential human threats

And because FAST is a mobile screening laboratory, it could be set up at entrances to stadiums, malls and in airports, making it ever more difficult for terrorists to live and work among us

Burns noted his team's goal is to "restore a sense of freedom." Once MALINTENT is rolled out in airports, it could give us a future where we can once again wander onto planes with super-sized cosmetics and all the bottles of water we can carry — and most importantly without that sense of foreboding that has haunted Americans since Sept.
11

Allison Barrie, a security and terrorism consultant with the Commission for National Security in the 21st Century, is FOX News' security columnist


Unlike current technology which aims to detect devices such as guns or explosives, MALINTENT focuses on the person who could pose the threat Photo: NEWSCAST

*********************************************
New airport screening 'could read minds'
*********************************************

US security officials could soon be screening potential terror suspects with a new type of technology capable of detecting "hostile intent"

Telegraph UK
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
24 Sep 2008

http://www. telegraph. co. uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/30699...

The Department of Homeland Security is testing a type of body scanner that seeks out invisible clues that a person might be harbouring criminal intent, such as raised body temperature, pulse and breathing rate

The system, called MALINTENT, uses a raft of "non-invasive" sensors and imagers to detect such factors remotely - subjects are not hooked up to anything.
It also evaluates a person's facial expression to help to gauge whether they could be planning to commit an attack or crime

The technology, developed by the Human Factors division of Homeland Security's directorate for Science and Technology, would be used at border checkpoints, airports and special events that require security screening

Unlike current technology which aims to detect devices such as guns or explosives, it focuses on the person who could pose the threat

The technology, dubbed Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST, deploys a range of "innovative physiological and behavioural technologies" to pick up "indications of malintent or the intent or desire to cause harm", according to the DHS

Still in the development stage, it is designed to streamline screening of people at security checkpoints enabling large numbers to be vetted swiftly

"It would take imaging and sensor technologies to observe physiological changes that might indicate intent to harm, such as skin temperature, pulse, respiration and gestures," said Amy Kudwa, a DHS spokeswoman

She added it would be capable of distinguishing between someone with a hostile intent and a plane passenger, for example, who was merely stressed about missing a connection

The technology is currently installed in a mobile unit, or demonstration laboratory, that scans people with multiple sensors while they walk through it.
Last week it was tested in Maryland using nearly about 140 volunteers, Ms Kudwa said

Some of the volunteers were told to act suspiciously as they walked past the FAST sensors

"We're still very early on in this research, but it is looking very promising," John Verrico, a DHS spokesman, told New Scientist.
"We are running at about 78 percent accuracy on mal-intent detection, and 80 percent on deception"

If the sensors pick up anything considered alarming, analysts can decide whether to subject a person to questioning

In a Homeland Security video showing the system in action, targeted subjects are asked questions such as "are you attempting to smuggle an explosive device" or "are you from the local area?"

During this stage, the MALINTENT technology judges "thermal" and "physiological" response as well as "situation awareness" and reads a person's minute facial muscle movements for evidence of emotional state, mood and intention

While some aspects of the system have triggered allusions to mind reading and the crime-predicting technology of science fiction film Minority Report, the DHS denies this is what the system is about

Ms Kudwa stressed nothing about a person's identity would be stored and the system would be subject to a "rigorous privacy review" before it was ever brought online

"We are still very much in a testing and validation of concept stage trying to determine if it's even feasible," Ms Kudwa said.
Any public use of the technology was "many years off", she added.