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Singapore Using Thermal Imaging to Check for SARS
Quixotic1 writes "Channel NewsAsia reports that Changi International Airport in Singapore, Asia's fourth-largest airport, is using walk-through thermal imaging devices to screen for people with SARS. 'If a person is feverish, reddish spots will apear all over his face [on the screen] and that person will then be set aside for further examination by the nurses.' A Reuters article says that the 'Infrared Fever Screening System' was originally developed for military purposes. They are being built by Singapore Technologies."
I don't think I'm paranoid, but this is starting to go overboard! On the other hand though we have SARS, which is pretty scare in itself. I understand why they are doing this, but what happens after SARS is nothing but history, if that happens at all? What reason will they give next time to check us for anything and everything?
A good, senseable use for airport security.
While a lot of folks will be up in arms over this, SARS is a large threat worldwide. Sure, this method will generate a lot of false positives, but it's probably less of an incovience than having to close down the airport and put a halt on all air travel, expecually in regions where SARS has a large presence.
And if I just had a cup of hot tea, or coffee, or am nervous, or if my traveling companion just said something horribly embarrassing, or....
www.eFax.com are spammers
And i'm curious to know what happens to people after they get led away, and at what point this starts to make since, since after all they may have just infected an airport full of people who are still getting on their flights.
I agree that this is an issue; I don't want to die, and this is killing people. But I'm not sure that I feel good about the lack of limitations here; halfway down the slippery slope already seems like a good time to stop and ask which is more important, our right to privacy or our physical safety, and how much of each we really HAVE to give up in order for this to work...
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
To view the latest info on sars check out the world health organization's specific site:
http://www.who.int/csr/alertresponse/en/ [ www.who.int ]
That is all! -Naomi
I wish they would start doing this where I work. America is one of the countries in the world where going to work sick is considered a moral obligation. Many countries think spreading disease to your coworkers is bad for productivity.
Assuming it's not just used as an excuse to stop anyone and harass them, this seems like it's fairly harmless. It's fairly simple to screen anyone stopped by the system for symptoms of SARS, which obviously is not really true when screening for terrorists.
I just wonder how effective it would be. It only takes a few people entering the country to start spreading the disease. If you've got one person with SARS coming into the country ever, and your system has a 90% chance of stopping that one person, then it's pretty effective. If however, you've got one person a day coming through with SARS, well after a week there's a 50% chance you've let an infected person through.
In other words the detection rate of your system has to be in line with the incoming rate of infected people, otherwise it's fairly useless.
At this point I'm sure there's nowhere near one person a day coming through any airport with SARS. But I also doubt the airport will only have one person ever come through.
AccountKiller
Soon, they will be checking your browser's history to see if you are accessing "evil" websites, checking to see if your dog's breath smells bad and checking your brain activity levels to see if you like the restricitions or not :-)
A friend of mine (Chinese ethnicity, as a matter of fact) had a condition where his face would break out into a red flush after he consumed alcohol.
A system like this could introduce some annoying false positives for SARS infected passengers.
OTOH, at least the extra inconvenience would not be as noticeable if one was sufficiently soused.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Yes, this system could be abused, however considering the seriousness of SARS, this is one of the few genuinely fast methods of screening people that is also effective. Taking temperatures, screening by appearance, etc etc are all either slower or not reliable enough to detect SARS. And yes, someone who merely has a fever could 'trip' this, but that is a small price to pay. It is important to note however, this is not a fix, since someone who is incubating the virus will pass through any scanner just fine. Regarding privacy & rights: On the other hand a quarantine is a massive elimination of rights, and I would rather be scanned via infrared to prevent that from happening, then say 'I wish to sacrifice my and other people's health since I see this as a violation of my privacy.' Yea, it may be, but its 10x worst when you are in quarantine and cant do jack for 10 - 14 days except sit in an oxygen tent. Then you can talk all about privacy, alone in a hospital ward. Yes, we must be vigilent to ensure that our privacy and freedoms do not go away, or dissappear while we look away. But, in this case, it is more harmful than good.
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
If the only basis is face surface temperature, taking substance causing periferal vasoconstriction will fool the test - the surface temperature will be lower.
The most common potent drug causing peripheral blood vessel constriction is nicotine. I have even seen thermal imaging pictures of extremities (hands, feet) before and after smoking a single cigarette. The "cooling effect" of nicotine is quite dramatic.
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
- Design virus
- Design equipment to track virus
- Release virus
- Sell equipement to track virus
- Profit
Nice business model.So SARS is this year's "wonder disease". It's killed about 150 people world wide and has a 4% fatality rate. Those people are no less dead for having been killed by SARS, but SARS is getting press far out of proporiton with its true nastyness.
Would anyone care to guess how many people died of heart disease, cancer, influenza, HIV, etc in the past couple months? Hint: each carries *slightly* more than a 4% fatality rate.
Bring back the Plague! A particularly virulent and contagious version! I'm tired of these candy-assed diseases that can't even manage to end the lives of more people than die in car accidents in and around some major cities in a similar time frame.
In mathematics, one does not understand things, one merely gets used to them.
--VonNeumann
I'm searching for the cheapest thermal camera I can find, also I wonder how they actually work.
A blog I run for the wealth
A major function of the US government is facilitating exploitation of US citizens by foreign elites-up to an including systemic abuse of prisoners.
It is possible that people are being infected with the SARS virus without having a fever yet. How will they get screened?
I can't wait to see the look on people's faces when I walk through the scanner with interesting patterns on my face in infrared paint!
Yes, there is in fact such a thing as infrared paint. Most Military vehicles are pained in a version of infrared paint that is "black" in infrared. It conseals them from infrared scanners and night vision goggles.
There is also a version of infrared paint that is "white" in the infrared. The Iraqi military had virtually no night vision or infrared capability so the "black" paint wasn't really any benefit. They therefore put an inverted V in "white" infrared paint on coalition vehicles to help avoid friendly fire.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
How this report was missed by the mainstream media is beyond me. Well, they seem to be addicted to face saving reports by WHO.
Two internationally famous Russian medical scientists gave televison interviews blowing the Chinese cover-up about the SARS virus. The report was all over the news media earlier this week in Australia. Bet you will not hear news reports about the real cause of SARS on ABC, CBS, NBC or CNN anytime soon.
http://www.newspundit.net
This really won't seem like much at all on top of the regular security at the Singapore airport, some of the toughest in the world. When I went through there last year it went something like this:
1. Show passport, all bags sent through X-ray machine.
2. All bags hand searched (including my dirty clothes bag holding stinky jungle hiking gear).
3. Show passport, get ticket, go towards gate.
4. Show passport, go through metal detector, all carry-on bags X-rayed.
5. All carry-ons sniffed with "Vap-o-Trace," presumably something like a portable GC/MS looking for explosive/drug vapors.
6. All carry-ons hand searched.
7. Show passport, Get on plane.
Excerpt from WHO report:
/Number of cases/deaths
"In Hong Kong, a large and sudden cluster of almost simultaneous cases (321) seen in residents of the Amoy Gardens housing estate has raised the possibility of transmission from an environmental source."
Sounds like a biological attack.
Data from WHO site (April, 19th):
Country
China / 1512 / 65
Canada / 132 / 12
HongKong / 1358 / 81
Singapore/ 177 / 16
Vietnam / 65 / 5
USA / 220 / 0
As treatment of an unknown virus from another country, USA seems to be unreasonably ahead of Canada, HongKong and any other countries. Perhaps it has got some vaccine in advance?