Homeland Security and TSA Are Funding Airport Mind-Reading Scanners!

[Better Believe It]

The TSA Is Funding Airport Mind-Reading Scanners
By Daniel Tencer
January 9, 2010


Amid the media furor over the attempted Christmas Day attacks and a renewed political focus on enhancing airport security, attention is turning to a technological advancement that will have civil rights activists -- or, for that matter, anyone with a secret --seriously worried: Mind-reading machines.

"As far-fetched as that sounds, systems that aim to get inside an evildoer's head are among the proposals floated by security experts thinking beyond the X-ray machines and metal detectors used on millions of passengers and bags each year," AP's Michael Tarm reports.

Tarm focuses on an Israeli company called WeCU Technologies (as in "we see you"), which is building a system that would turn airport waiting areas into arenas for Pavlovian behavioral tests:

The system ... projects images onto airport screens, such as symbols associated with a certain terrorist group or some other image only a would-be terrorist would recognize, company CEO Ehud Givon said.

The logic is that people can't help reacting, even if only subtly, to familiar images that suddenly appear in unfamiliar places. If you strolled through an airport and saw a picture of your mother, Givon explained, you couldn't help but respond.

The reaction could be a darting of the eyes, an increased heartbeat, a nervous twitch or faster breathing, he said. The WeCU system would use humans to do some of the observing but would rely mostly on hidden cameras or sensors that can detect a slight rise in body temperature and heart rate.

According to numerous news reports, WeCU has received two grants, from the US Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, for their research. Raw Story was unable to determine how much money WeCU received from the US government, but regulatory filings show the company spent at least $60,000 on lobbying in Washington in 2006 and 2007.

WeCU's technology is by no means the only mind-reading security system in development today. Another Israeli company, Suspect Detection Systems, has developed a technology that reads a person's "hostile intent" by measuring bodily responses, through the person's hand, while being asked questions. That system was field-tested at the Knoxville, Tennessee, airport last summer.

Between 2005 and 2006, SDS received $460,000 in grants from the TSA and the science directorate of Homeland Security.

Read the full article at:

http://www.alternet.org/media/145041/the_tsa_is_funding_airport_mind-reading_scanners?page=entire

[mdmc]

1. Now our airports are almost as secure as our casinos

progress!

[Rage for Order]

2. Well, as long as it keeps me safe it will be fine and I will trust my government

:sarcasm:

[rcrush]

5. This is one of those few times the Sarcasm smiley is required

Cause I saw like 12 posts yesterday that said the same thing WITHOUT the smiley.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Various schemes of this sort have been proposed and tried

as lie detectors, advertising response meters and whatnot, under far more controlled situations than in airports. They all require that sensors of some sort be placed on the subject, and the actual information they deliver ranges from crude arousal indices to essentially useless. What are they proposing to do, read brainwaves at a distance or something? Brainwaves at the scalp are measurable in a few microvolts; the fluorescent lights send out far more powerful signals. This sounds like a total scam to me.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. The ticket machine at the airport parking lot was broken the other

day. Nobody there knew what to do, it was chaos. Imagine the cluster fuck that that thing would create.

[Jamastiene]

6. So, basically, in my case, Homeland Security just became porn producers

Marvelous! Can I have video of my thoughts? I know this web site, you see...

I hope they enjoy my dirty mind. :evilgrin:

[oserb]

7. Airport Fairport

I wonder why so much "terrorist" related technology concentrates on airport security. Are terrorists so dumb that they don't realize there are easier targets that would really freak out Americans? How good is security at your local high school football game? The question is who makes money from the development of this technology? Find out that answer and you'll know what is really behind are the fear created in the name of terrorism.

[ThomWV]

8. So now they will be able to hear me saying/thinking "Go fuck yourself"