High-Tech Security System Turns U.S. Embassies Into Panopticons

[Ian David]

ARLINGTON, Virginia -- The middle-aged woman in sunglasses strolling through the busy airport concourse doesn't look like a threat. Not to travelers, at least. But moments earlier, the woman had crept through an emergency exit door and bypassed security. Now she's trying to blend in with the crowd.

She doesn't get far. In a demonstration of a new security platform currently being rolled out in U.S. embassies around the world, the woman is detained by police within seconds. Already, the guards have a photo of her on their PDAs, an image captured by a "slaved" camera above the emergency exit and routed through a console to the handheld gear. A real-time 3-D map on the console reveals if other sensors have been tripped. Operators beam the woman's mug instantly to Homeland Security for identification.



This is how Visual Security Operations Console Sentinel, or VSOC, is supposed to work, and, based on demos like these, the State Department has high hopes for the technology. The department is paying $3.5 million over a two-year period to install the Boeing-designed VSOC in its embassies. A dozen facilities already use the system -- the State Department won't say which ones -- and 60 more are scheduled to have it within two years.

"It's a dangerous world," said Dennis Williams, a senior adviser at the State Department. "This is a new tool in our arsenal to help us better grasp and display information."

More:
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/04/embassy_0413

[ixion]

1. "Loitering"

gee, it sure sounds fun to live in a panopticon world. :puke:

[oscarmitre]

2. An irony

given that Panopticon was the name given to new "model prisons" in Britain in the 19th Century (connected with Jeremy Bentham)which allowed prison officials to see all of the yards.

[Ian David]

3. Loitering while Arab. n/t