Great. We'll have to take a biometric lie detector test before flying...

[readmoreoften]

If you think bag searches and shoe removal is invasive, you'll love the new gadget they're testing. A biometric truth booth where the TSA asks you if you're smuggling drugs on board. Cool. I feel safer already.


***********************
At airport security checkpoints in Knoxville, Tenn. this summer, scores of departing passengers were chosen to step behind a curtain, sit in a metallic oval booth and don headphones. With one hand inserted into a sensor that monitors physical responses, the travelers used the other hand to answer questions on a touch screen about their plans. A machine measured biometric responses -- blood pressure, pulse and sweat levels -- that then were analyzed by software. The idea was to ferret out U.S. officials who were carrying out carefully constructed but make-believe terrorist missions.

GE Security CEO Louis Parker demonstrates some of the company's airport screening devices.The trial of the Israeli-developed system represents an effort by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to determine whether technology can spot passengers who have "hostile intent." In effect, the screening system attempts to mechanize Israel's vaunted airport-security process by using algorithms, artificial-intelligence software and polygraph principles.

Neither the TSA nor Suspect Detection Systems Ltd., the Israeli company, will discuss the Knoxville trial, whose primary goal was to uncover the designated bad guys, not to identify threats among real travelers. They won't even say what questions were asked of travelers, though the system is generally designed to measure physical responses to hot-button questions like "Are you planning to immigrate illegally?" or "Are you smuggling drugs."



http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115551793796934752-2hgveyRtDDtssKozVPmg6RAAa_w_20070813.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

[ikojo]

1. But, but, but...it'll keep us SAFE from those BAAAAD

people, right? I don't mind giving up rights...heck I wasn't using them anyway so Bush can have them.

:sarcasm:

[readmoreoften]

2. Note it's going to be used for drug offenders too.

So every kid who's carrying a vial of marijuana up the kazoo is going to be exposed in the Great Biometric Truth Booth. Well, except for people with anxiety disorder, who will end up on no fly lists because they can't pass the test.

America is going to be a SCARY place in 10 years.

[phillinweird247]

4. The Great Biometric Truth Booth!!!!

"So every kid who's carrying a vial of marijuana up the kazoo is going to be exposed in the Great Biometric Truth Booth"

It almost sounds funny if it wasn't so scary!

[obreaslan]

3. Only if we can put W* in there too....

"Did you lie to get us into the Iraq War?

"Did you and your buddies cheat in the last three elections?"

"Are you purposely bankrupting the country so you can walk away with billions of dollars of our money?"

And when he fails the test, he'll never be allowed to board Air Force One again. :evilgrin:

[Sinti]

5. The beauty of it is, you can be trained to fool a lie detector test.

They are inherently inaccurate. So if people were going to bomb a plane, they'd first have to go through a kind of inoculation procedure to keep them from having an elevated heart rate, perspiring, and so on. Hypnosis might work well to keep them from from reacting also, at least 1 in 5 of them. There are specific brain waves that correlate with hostile intent, but again, they could be trained to think of something quite lovely while the test is ongoing. It's just more BS for us to deal with, they're not fighting "terrorism".

[readmoreoften]

6. kick for the day owls. /nt