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Brain Scanning May Be Used In EU Security Checks
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from the Guardian: "Distinctive brain patterns could become the latest subject of biometric scanning after EU researchers successfully tested technology to verify identities for security checks. The experiments, which also examined the potential of heart rhythms to authenticate individuals, were conducted under an EU-funded inquiry into biometric systems that could be deployed at airports, borders and in sensitive locations to screen out terrorist suspects."
The same article says that "The Home Office, meanwhile, has confirmed rapid expansion plans of automated facial recognition gates: 10 will be operating at major UK airports by August."
I wonder what Bruce Schneier would have to say about such elaborate measures.
Because we can (ab)use this technology to identify brain patterns of illegal behavior.
The identification would be fool proof, but who cares when you can catch terrorists and pedophiles.
Do terrorists have distinctive brain patterns that would cause an alarm to go off?
All this does is help to confirm that the passport holder is the person to whom the passport was issued. The 9/11 bombers would all have passed this test, as they were travelling on their own passports.
Using this in conjunction with the new Google Brain search should make spotting nefarious terrorists, murderers, drug traffickers and torrenters easy. The program should be run by Alfred Bester.
DISCLAIMER: I am very rarely serious. If the above comment seems asinine makes no sense, it is most likely a bad joke.
This passenger has the sloping brow and cranial bumpage of a plane-jacking terrorist.
Distinctive brain patterns could become the latest subject of biometric scanning
Time to start journeying to Wild Divine. Learn to change your mental state for fun and profit.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
What about brainless idiots?
Will it work for them as well?
An officer pulls someone out of the crowd:
officer: "Sir please come with me, your identification did not work, you must be using some illegal gadget to mask your brainID!!"
guy: "Nonono, I'm a politician!"
Enough security at airports, we get it, they're "safe." The real security threats are against soft targets with no protection at all. Any location with a large crowd is a target and they're also impossible to defend.
I can see why you want fingerprints on passports, but all the insane stuff since then (e.g. "makes you naked" (Backscatter) child porno vision) is just over the top and adds an insanely small amount of additional protection.
Let's remember:
- All 9/11 passengers used valid ID
- All recent terrorists have also used valid ID
can this possibly go wrong?
While security is nice, there may be such a thing as going too far. Let alone it doesn't solve the problem of people wanting to commit a crime in the first place.
Poor UKians are now the guinea pigs of the surveillance scum.
Not that we don't have some of those here in Germany (Schäuble et al.), but at the moment UK seems to be the spearhead.
Ugh.
A former coworker who is a Syrian expatriate and I were talking about Islamic terrorism, and the conversation turned to Saudi Arabia. If you look at the profile of international Islamic terrorism, Saudi Arabia is disproportionately represented in terrorist groups around the world. I don't know if it's still true, but at its peak, half of the insurgents we killed in Iraq on any given day were Saudis.
If Western countries simply prohibited Saudi nationals from staying for any length longer than a vacation or business trip, it'd be easier to keep out suspected Islamic terrorists. If Western governments would also start shutting down Saudi-financed mosques and Islamic schools, that'd be even better. The Saudis are funding the radicalization of Islam around the world, and we'd be doing the majority of Muslims a favor by targeting Saudi Arabia and Saudi nationals for very direct, special attention as the majority of Muslims would be left alone to live in peace if that's their desire.
But of course the worst thing a Western government can do is to appear to be discriminating against someone for something, and to possibly even be limiting the expression of a religion, no matter how violently hostile and alien it is to the host society. We think we're taking the moral high ground when all we're doing is importing people who want to tear down our societies, and in the end we're hurting the honest immigrants who really want to flee that bullshit like my former coworker as much as we're hurting our own people.
What if airport security accidentally invokes brainscan with the --format flag? Also, does this mean brains are open source now?
--
Slow Poke
They'll have to up the minimum requirements for being the security check person from "some highschool" to "med school graduate"
Now offering free prostate exams with every flight!
They seem determined to abuse technology as far as *the abuse* can go.
Phrase: "Quantum of Terror"
"Hmm. Our ID test runs on heartbeats, measured in a comfy lab with plush seats and chocolate mints. But we Don't Like This Guy.
" 'Hey, you're a terrorist!!' "
(Subject's heart races)
"Oh look, he fails. He MUST be a terrorist! Wheee!"
It's Schrodinger's Nightmare.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Thankfully, I'm immune to both brain scanners and zombies.
Maybe this is different in EEG, but in the context of fMRI, subject is likely the easiest variable to classify on. I've done some experiments on it myself as part of my doctoral work. Even something as simple as wavelet processing the data and performing k-nearest neighbor classification yielded 96% accuracy on a motor task fMRI dataset of moderate size, and that was just a baseline method I was using to compare a better one to! In fact, the effect of the task was being obscured by the subject, and we had to remove the subject means from the data before we could attempt to classify on task (what we really wanted to do) with any reasonable degree of success.
It's probably the nature of fMRI image acquisition itself that has prevented this from being used as a biometric, for obvious reasons (asking people to submit to fMRI scans at airports is neither reasonable nor practical, and even EEG requires too much preparation to use as a general screen, considering how long lines get already). It's definitely not the difficulty of classification holding it back.
Is it possible to perform the scan without collecting medical information about brain/heart? If no, then it seriously violates private character of my health information. What is the guarantee that the information will not leak (read: get sold on black market to insurance companies, potential employers, ...)? Final question: what do I gain from this? More taxpayer money wasted on security theater?
So, if they don't detect a brain, then clearly you must be from The Home Office?
hmmm, I wonder how could that be?
The problem is that a "moderate Muslim" is really an oxymoron. Islamic law very explicitly says that it *must* be applied to every circumstance in life, without exception.
This situation is very well analyzed in this book. Islamic scholars like Sayyid Qutb have put the situation in the following terms:
1) One must choose between evil or good
2) If one chooses the path of good, one must be consisten in it
This is a logical argument, no one can say anything against it. The problem is when people like Sayyid Qutb and his followers assume that "good" is equal to Islam, and any deviation from the strictest interpretation of Islam is evil.
Unfortunately, this interpretation is consistent with a careful reading of the Quran.
Differently from the Bible, which is a compilation of writings from different authors from many different times and places, the Quran was written in a short time at one place. The Bible has reports of historical and legendary events, intermixed with moral teachings. The Quran is mostly moral teachings alone.
Reading the Quran leaves many people with a strong sense of duty to perform those acts, to lead a life of moral righteousness, much more than the Bible does because it's much more concentrated on the moral commandments. I have read a translation of the Quran and was impressed on how those commandments seem to be worded in such a stronger way than in the Bible.
There are also some extremely radical Christians, it's true, but they have never reached such a high number of sympathizers as radical Muslims, at least not in the last few centuries.
I believe that if someone want to be a Muslim without following the radical path, then he must make an effort to study and analyze the Quran, like the radicals have done, and try to verify in which manner the moderate interpretation can be validated by the text. It seems to me that the radicals have been more successful in putting forward their interpretation.
We can't read thoughts. Our current equipment is far too crude to even identify specific neural pathways. All we can do is detect electrical activity or oxygen use in *regions* of the brain. At best they might be able to determine you are (possibly) anxious or fearful. So about as useful for reading thoughts as a polygraph (aka not useful at all).
I doubt we will ever be able to read thoughts because of the difficult of isolating neural pathways, and the fact that thoughts aren't encoded in a way we even understand. It isn't as simple as making a sensitive detector and then decoding a stream of data.
IAAPS (I Am A Psychology Student).
========
CINC, 4th Penguin Legion
Maybe we should revert back the the old ways of throwing suspects in the water with a stone tied around their neck. If they float, they're guilty and will be burned, and if they sink.. well at least they are innocent right?
Sure would cut down on the polluting business of air travel wouldn't it? :)
You have a stroke or a heart bypass?
I only looked at the comments here for this. I likes a good tinfoil hat!
while it's a bit screwy using brain scans, if they can eliminate false positives, it ain't so bad. We just need to make sure enough "good people" are descion makers in the new paradigm. We are all human.
without wanting to sound like a bad 80s rapper or 60s tripper... peace.
I don't therefore I'm not.
At least according to TFA they're planning to spend [i]only[/i] £15M on biometric stuff this year. Compared to the what, billions, being spent on the ID cards that maybe we aren't going to ever make compulsory anyway, this is a drop in the lake.
Convicted by no action of their own, just observation of a brain scan.
This has serious consequences. Anyone can observe an action. Only a few can read brain scans. We must trust those that can read brain scans that what they say about them are correct.
We can now be a criminal due to a technology so advanced that the defendant has no ability to defend himself. It is essentially guilt by decree from the gifted (aka royalty).
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Scan this,
Mo%^erfu&kers !!.
Yours In Socialism,
Kilgore Trout
I'd love to see the studies that back up using any sort of brain based metric for identification. It's an ever changing organ and the expectation that a persons signature won't change as they age will probably lead to a lot of senile octogenarians being assaulted. It's a whole new kind of entertainment for the business traveler.
How do you mean revert back?
If brain activity is detected, then you are not a Senator.
Even if it wirks. The reason is simple: If you do know the terrorists, you just pick them up and put them in prison. If you do not know them, no amounth of identification technology will help.
Quite obvious, I would think.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
All the wonders of technology will not only "improve" our lives but it will facilitate our collective enrollment without our knowledge or consent and its already happening.
Brainscanning will be used in the Pre-Crime future and the funny thing about the future, we think its about tomorrow but unfortunately, the future is here
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1070329053600562261
I've had migraines all my life and have had EEGs done to diagnose the cause. I've seen my EEGs when I have a migraine and when I don't have a migraine; they are substantially different. Looks like travel through the EU might be a bit dicey for me in the future.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Mood rings. What color is "terrorist?"
Between all the cameras and facial scanners at the UK, and now brain scanners and other intrusive surveillance techniques being instituted at the EU, one could see a future where historians note that George W Bush was actually rather a brake on the deployment of new "security" technology, as opposed to his trans-Atlantic counterparts.
This is my sig.
"Distinctive brain patterns could become the latest subject of biometric scanning after EU researchers successfully tested technology to verify Âidentities for security checks." - This is the only information in the whole article about the brain scans. mre info plz :(
The way you wrote "as far as *the abuse* can go." made me think at first it was a quote of what I said, but I see I didn't say that. :)
Anyway even though the people in power use their terrorist 'Wild Card' whenever they want to bring in yet more Big Brother moves, its not just about terrorists etc... For example, in the UK they had the IRA attacking for years and doing far more damage than any current terrorist, yet the UK lived happily without the need for the police state they are building now. Its not about terror. It hasn't been for years. Its now an outright power grab by the political elite in power, as they seek ever more ways to grab ever more power. (But then even terrorists want to be in charge and force others to follow their ways, so they also are acting ultimately out of a desire to be in power). The political elite constantly seek power over others, that's ultimately why they want to work in politics. They wouldn't last long in their jobs if they didn't seek power over others, as other people who do seek power, would undermine them in such a competitive environment. That means the most power seeking people tend toward the top in politics and they are the ones who dictate the rules and changes to laws etc..
It seems month by month the UK is becoming one of the the fastest growing police states in the world. Judging by the rampant self serving corruption in the UK government, its a warning to the rest of the world. For example:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&forumID=6430&edition=1&ttl=20090512154613&#paginator
There is growing anger in the UK against their ever increasingly corrupt leaders. Its getting to the point where everyone needs to stand up and say no more to the current political elite. But the problem is this slip into a global Big Brother police state is happening all around the world, just at different speeds to the UK. Its just most evident in the most politically corrupt countries like the UK, but this same slide is happening in every country at different speeds as their political elite see new ways to gain ever more power. Its eventually going to take everyone in every country to stand up to their leaders and say no more abuse of technology for ever more power.
But getting people to stop the political elite is being slowed up by their politicians game of making people believe they are powerless, so they cannot do or say anything to oppose their leaders. They want to promote division between groups. Its rule by divide and conquer. Small groups can't stand up to a government. But remember the people in power are very much a small minority of the population and while the government think they run it all, if the general population decides to stand up and say no more, every government has to listen. (This divide and conquer tactic of slowing up attempts to oppose them, is ironically helping to build greater anger in societies, who are being made to feel ever more unfairly treated and so its building ever greater anger and pressure for change against the current system, until it does eventually explode in their faces).
We have two problems remaining before people will stand up and say no more. The first is the technology is beyond the understanding of the majority of non-technical people. That could be solved if the technically minded people gave a coherent message of anger against the technology. But the second problem is ironically caused by technologically minded people getting distracted by in-fighting about inefficiencies between communications of Big Brother technology. The Nazis had huge communication inefficiencies, but that didn't stop them making a horrific world.
All the in fighting plays into the hands of the political elite as they want divide and conquer arguments to divide groups. We technically minded people need to get past the in-fighti
There are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.
I have some brain issues where part of my brain do not communicate well with other parts, resulting in my losing track of whatâ(TM)s going on in the âoenowâ; brain goes into hyper activity mode of me trying to understand the situation.
I spent about a year doing training with brain monitors to learn how to calm my own brain activity. I can now consciously change alpha / delta states within various parts of my brain allowing me to calm things down. It like those monks who are doing their zen thing, I can shut things down and go into a zen state in about 5 minute and make the world go away. A side effect I can also change my blood pressure and heart rate, fun to do it while the doctor is trying to get a reading of your blood pressure.
What I am trying to point out is that I can alter my brain activity at will and can most likely mess up their whole brain patterns biometric scanning, I can change mine own brain activity at will.
Doing this anonymously because of the personal nature of my problem.
EU funded science projects rarely lead to useful results.
The positive thing about this is that people are trying to develop more reliable biometric technology. It could be argued that an ID card, passport, employee badge, credit card, wrist band, or door key is an item used to prove identity and entitlement. Biometrics are a form of identification that comes closer to proving that you _are_ who you're supposed to be, not just that you have what you're supposed to have. Now, I'm not saying that this kind of technology couldn't be used invasively, but there are potential benefits to our own security as well.
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People being sniffing spray paint at airports. :(
When the sexy Stewardess is checking in in front of you, I guess the brain scan will be a blank slate.
I have mental retardation.
"otherwise it had not voted twice for the idiot bastard son"
Once. Anyway, there are actually more neurons in your gut than there are in your brain, it's true, look it up. I know many of you will say you did look it up and it's not true, well that's because you looked it up in a book. Next time try looking it up in your gut.
(although in all seriousness, second brain disovererd in stomach" has already happened... not sure if it's enough to measure in the same way to use for biometrics, eg, different people having recognisably different stomach thought patterns, so there goes my attempt at bringing my post on topic!)
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
This simply won't work, as while we have the ability to scan for specific brain activities, the technology is already readily available to change the way that your brain works.
Neurofeedback (EEG Biofeedback) utilizes Pavlov's theory to re-train the brain in real-time. With enough training sessions, in a short amount of time, it's possible to retrain brainwaves on about 80-90% of the population. (Source: http://www.braintreatmentchicago.com/Documents/NavLink/QEEG_Neurofeedback_Therapy_in_Personality_Disorders_uid4320091111281.pdf
Although... if the brainwaves are retrained, the personality adjusts...
I realise this is too late, but, when has any of this FUD come to pass ? I live in the uk and apart from the cameras (mostly private, cannot photograph the public, or the public (cannot photograph the private)) there is no-one suffering from these innovations. I still go about my business (law breaking and all) and have yet to be questioned. Is it just a matter of time, or are you all just freaking unnecessarily. The potential is there, but the potential is ALWAYS there, isn't it ?
I am no shrinking violet, believe me, and I already have a history, so if anybody was going to get a tug it would be me. But as yet, nothing. Apparently it is against EU law to work more than 60 hours in 1 week, but there are people advertising on the UK govt. job site for jobs that entail 75 hours a week. Does that look like slavish devotion to the rules ? Get a grip.
If only we'd had some sort of machine that could have detected metal knives.
I've written a lot of code for EEG analysis, I'm familiar with just about every algorithm used out there, and the field isn't ready to do what this article suggests. It may not even be possible, in the sense that the brain doesn't work the way these government funders wish it did. It's like with torture, which makes people say what you want to hear, but doesn't get get a reliably truthful answer. I'm sure a few dozen subjects can be differentiated, but even then it's too unreliable for positive ID. The signal varies by mood, hunger, cleanliness(for surface cunduction), environmental electrical interference, etc. The electrodes have to be in exactly the same location from one measurement to the next... What's going on here is some hack fooled the UK into funding their operation, and are playing it up in the media to keep it running for the full 15 minutes. There are a lot of organizations (mostly gov) willing to fund fanciful stuff like this. It's hard to say no to their money, I've run on some of that. But spotting the hacks isn't too hard, they're the ones who take their case to the media, rather than their colleagues.
BIOEFFECTS: Destruction of Brain
Dear Sir, Madam,
Cheryl Welsh, Mind Justice: The Militarization of Neuroscience, By Hugh Gusterson, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Online), 10 April 2007
http://mindjustice.org/mindwarsatomic.htm
(SATELLITE) BIO-Electronic/Psychotronic BRAINMind/Body Control/ANNIHILATION Weapons:
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6205
http://freedomfchs.com/ffchsmessages/viewtopic.php?t=563
Yours sincerely.
NB!
God Bless Us, Everyone!
Without the Scientologist actor in tow, of course.