Airport Security Prize Announced

Reservoir Hill writes "Verified Identity Pass, a firm that offers checkpoint services at airports, has announced a $500,000 award for any solution that will make airport security checks quicker and simpler for passengers. The cash prize will go to any individual, company or institution that can get customers through airport security 15% faster, at a cost of less than 25 cents per passenger, using technology or processes that will be approved by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Passengers must not need to remove their clothes or shoes, something that slows down processing significantly. "We're looking at moving things that are conceptual or in the lab to things that we can deploy," says company spokesman Jason Slibeck and added that over 150 individuals, start-ups, defense contractors and universities have shown an interest in the prize. One promising procedure is mass spectroscopy, which involves analyzing the mass-charge ratio of ions on a swab sample taken from a passenger's clothing or air collected from around them to spot traces of substances including explosives or drugs. The Pre-Registration Package Information Sheet is available online."

Comments

How about.

[Creepy Crawler]

Dogs?

Yeah, trained dogs..

Dogs can smell fear, and many chemical substances. You just have a pack of em and train them to bark ferociously when they "sense" trouble. Police dogs already have that kind of leeway.

Re:How about.

[Mr. Flibble]

How about those who are afraid of dogs? Or those who are afraid of flying? That would trigger a great deal of false positives.

Also, I have worked with dogs, and police dogs specifically, and I don't find their purported "detection" ability to be as good as public opinion makes it out to be.

Air Marshel and a gun.

[geekoid]

remove first class(shock!)
Put a seat facing the passengers, put an air marshal with a pistol and a shotgun. Give him mirrored shades.

Create a secured cockpit door.

Go back to the more general pre 9/11 security

Profit..I mean Done.

Maybe a lock down code on the auto pilot, so you can land the plane w/o pilot intervention. Auto pilot landing can be, and is more then most people know, done today.

oh, wait, you mean maintain the theater of security and speed it up? no, those two things are opposites.

There is good stuff already out there

[Original Replica]

I recently worked on a gig where many high profile business and political figures were attending. I walked through a SecureScan system. I'm a stagehand, so I had tools on me. I the scan operator could tell the difference between my 8" crescent wrench, my multi-tool, and my Spyderco knife as I walked through at a normal pace. I know because he only asked about my knife, not the other tools.

Re:The purpose is fear

[wumingzi]

The main purpose behind the security is to keep the population frightened and annoyed.

No. That's the purpose behind the ever-popular bad security, popular with tinpot governments and nasty IT departments the world over.

Real security is supposed to let legitimate users get on with their jobs, stopping bad guys in their tracks, and being as invisible as possible.

If you want a good example of real security, go to London Heathrow airport. It's nice. It's pleasant. It's a giant shopping mall where airplanes land. You never see anything there but happy tourists and
the odd lightly armed police officer.

That's an illusion. Hundreds of people are around to make sure that nothing goes sideways there.

I heard a FOAF story about someone who "tripped the alarm" (in this case, walking through a door plainly marked "Do Not Enter")

The results were amazing.

Re:Eliminate it?

[gnick]

Are we spending sufficient of our anti-terror effort on things that the enemy have not drawn our attention toward? Only a little bit. That's what's so frustrating for me. I'm funded full-time working counter-terror. In an area where we're vulnerable and in an area where the terrorists have shown a lot of interest. But, it's an area where we've never seen an attack. So... I have to work in, IMHO, an underfunded security area while watching $$ that could be well spent go to short-sighted initiatives.

I swear I'm not trolling here, just venting, but this post may earn me a couple of /. Freaks. The nonsensical shit behind some of these security decisions almost makes me want a dictator who can make sensible decisions based on the country's needs instead of a bunch of pandering vote-whores who only care about sound-bites. I'm behind democracy and I hate what W has done with his almighty pen, so I'll oppose the shift toward totalitarianism at every turn. But it's stuff like this that makes me pissed off at Americans in general.