Caught on camera: Fujitsu touts anti-terrorist pulse-taking tech Japanese boffins at Fujitsu have announced a new imaging technology that can take a user’s pulse simply by monitoring the changing brightness of their face, and in so doing potentially stop shifty souls at the airport. The ingenious video-based system captures the subject’s face, calculating the average value of red, green and …
> so in other words utterly pointless.
Right, so any security measure that can be defeated should be instantly abandoned.
Lets get rid of metal detectors because you could have a ceramic knife instead of a metal one. Lets abandon passport checks because you can forge one, etc.
Alternatively, lets make it so that there are a 100 different things the terrorist has to get right every time in order to not be caught.
"Alternatively, lets make it so that there are a 100 different things the terrorist has to get right every time in order to not be caught."
Or - and I know this is from completely outside the envelope - we could stop being so f***ing paranoid and allow going to airports to be a pleasure again. I know it isn't going to happen anytime soon, but it is a pleasant dream of mine.
"lets make it so that there are a 100 different things the terrorist has to get right every time in order to not be caught."
Please look up the following words: "False Positive".
How many people might also fall foul of those "100 different things"?
As for "unfounded distrust", perhaps you should look up "diminishing returns" too...
There is a flaw in your logic
What do you do when you have 'caught' someone holding a bomb? After the remains of the previous security team have been scraped off the ceiling latex gloves as well. Your enthusiasm for the 'gotcha' moment tends to fade. It is a little late once the hot sweaty guy is in the crowd at the security perimeter. Many of these security defences just allow you to tense up.
MIT showed off something similar last year:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/amplifying-invisible-video-0622.html
And have since developed it further:
http://video.mit.edu/watch/revealing-invisible-changes-in-the-world-13649/
http://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/vidmag/
Attention all passengers:
In order to avoid racial profiling based on the color of a person's skin at airport security, we will now closely monitor the color of your skin to decide whether or not you are a terrorist.
Confused? Good. Now put your clothes back on and enjoy your flight.
"Or people who are desperate for a piss because they've been in the security queue for so long."
Or been traveling for 24+ hours and need to make a connection at Heathrow, typically at the most distant terminal and this checkpoint being the fourth rectal exam in the past 24 hours.
The "VitalSigns" app from Philips has been doing heart rate detection on the iPhone 4S for quite some time (the first version was posted late 2011). It also monitors breathing, but it needs you to keep the camera quite steady. The heart rate detection seems less sensitive.
that would be, like, all the people who line up at Stansted to go through the hoops - as soon as they realize that the crowd in front of them is NOT a temporary obstruction. Same with people getting off a plane, when they try to get through the terminal door, 5 miles before the passport control, and they are asked to form an orderly line. It's the only time I wished I had a non-EU passport.
There's going to be so many false positives with this. What of people with heart issues? Tachycardia? Never mind all the various more mundane reasons for people's hearts to be racing. This would probably more accurately pre-screen for obese passengers so the airlines can charge them extra. Either way this is just more profiling. Especially since most terrorists expect to die and have made peace with that. They're probably the calmest of the lot.
Because my pulse is never raised at the airport due to wearing too many layers, carrying a bag around, being stressed about the poor service, arguing with the wife, bemoaning the lack of coffee or being up at 0400 to get there...
Is there any evidence that suggests that terrorists at airports have pulses measurably higher than the rest of the people pissed off at being at the airport and not on holiday already?
You don't even need valium: you just have to be rock-solid certain of the rightness of your cause, that the Big Guy Upstairs values you more than anyone else in the airport, and is ready to welcome your soul into paradise, and that your plan cannot fail, due to the first two points.
I think a truly committed terrorist will be calmer than the middle-aged lady smuggling some home-made pate or fresh fruit for the family overseas.
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