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Fear Detector To Sniff Out Terrorists

Posted by timothy on from the interesting-assumptions dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Evidence that the smell of fear is real was uncovered by US scientists last year who studied the underarm secretions of 20 terrified novice skydivers and found that people appear to respond unconsciously to the sweat smell of a frightened person. Now the Telegraph reports that researchers hope a 'fear detector' will make it possible to identify individuals at check points who are up to no good. 'The challenge lies in the characterization and identification of the specific chemical that gives away the signature of human fear, especially the fear in relation to criminal acts,' says Professor Tong Tun at City University London, who leads the team developing security sensor systems that can detect the human fear pheromone. The project will look at potential obstacles to the device, such as the effects of perfume and the variances in pheromone production and if the initial 18-month feasibility study is successful, the first detectors could be developed in the next two to three years. 'I do not see any particular reason why similar sensor techniques cannot be expanded to identify human smells by race, age or gender to build a profile of a criminal during or after an incident,' Tong added."

20 of 342 comments (clear)

  1. Detects terrorists... by the_one(2) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... or people who are afraid of being suspected of terrorism

    1. Re:Detects terrorists... by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or people who are afraid of flying?

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    2. Re:Detects terrorists... by somersault · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or people who are nervous about their big business meeting, or meeting their possible future in-laws, etc etc

      --
      which is totally what she said
    3. Re:Detects terrorists... by tapanitarvainen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Guess it would work best in reverse: people who are *not* afraid are obvious psychopaths...

    4. Re:Detects terrorists... by Forge · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Meanwhile the guy with a box cutter and a few pounds of C4 smells horny (for his 70 virgins) not fearful.

      --
      --= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
    5. Re:Detects terrorists... by db32 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Are you kidding, that would be perfect. I mean really...watching DHS traumatize a bunch of already frightened travelers. Oh this is going to be awesome! Afraid of flying, afraid of traveling alone, claustrophobic, business travelers afraid of giving the presentation they are being sent to do, every week sees groups of people traveling to military bases to start basic training and I bet most of them are pretty afraid of how it may go. The possibilities are endless! This is going to be so awesome.

      Especially when we arrest the arabic man who was just nervous about introducing his girlfriend to his parents.

      --
      The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
    6. Re:Detects terrorists... by MadnessASAP · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In away your right, from what I understand suicide bombers aren't even remotely afraid or even consider what they are doing to be anything but gods holy work. They probably wont even register in the slightest on these detectors. Whereas the people who are worried about receiving securities own special "enema" will be.

      --
      I may agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to face the consequences of saying it.
    7. Re:Detects terrorists... by TheCarp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That is exactly what I would assume to be the case. Though there may be the fear of getting caught but... I doubt it. I think the false positive rate on anything like this is going to be through the roof.

      Frankly, I will laugh and hoot the first time someone is awarded a huge sum because of the trauma they experienced when their panic disorder brings on the start of an attack and trips off the sensor. Because, as we all know, being suddenly pulled aside by a person in uniform is exactly the sort of thing that a person having an uncontrollable panic attack needs to calm them down. The sort of ham handed treatment typical of people who feel that someone paying them and putting them in a silly uniform gives them the right to harass other people is exactly the sort of thing that will really move their treatment forward.

      Terrorism is a largely imaginary threat. Panic disorder is a real and debilitating disorder.

      I am seriously against damaging real people to catch imaginary ones.

      -Steve

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
    8. Re:Detects terrorists... by Dun+Malg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Terrorism is a real threat, it's just nowhere near as large a threat as some would make it out to be.

      Yeah, well, we're talking about airport terrorist screening here. Terrorism on airplanes is pretty much over. The idea that we need to protect against guys getting on with box cutters is absolutely ludicrous. If anything, the shift in public perception of hijacking should have allowed a relaxing of security at airports, as the passengers will immediately hogtie, pummel, and sedate any idiot dumb enough to try anything. Really, the only thing left to look out for is explosives, and that's a fairly simple chemistry problem. All this shit with taking off shoes, smelling us for fear, and peering through our clothes with machines is expensive security theater to mitigate a problem that's already been solved.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  2. Supercomputer involved to be named "Deep Sniff"? by unitron · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What if the fear they detect in you is the fear of missing your flight while you're held up trying to convince security that you aren't a threat?

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  3. Yeah, but... by FlyByPC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you have a true religious fanatic, who is looking forward to dying for a cause he believes in -- and is looking forward to eternity in the paradise-of-his-choice for his actions, would he* still show physiological signs of fear?

    * (I think statistically, "he" is a fair generalization here.)

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
  4. But worry not! by BlackSash · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People that are afraid of flying (or more accurately, crashing) will not need to worry about being picked out of the line for 'smelling suspiscious'! Not at all...

    --
    Posting obviously for anonymous reasons.
  5. Oops by dissy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now the Telegraph reports that researchers hope a 'fear detector'' will make it possible to identify individuals at check points who are up to no good.

    What about us law abiding citizens who are only afraid that our governments checkpoint workers are up to no good?

    It is already a very real possibility for one of those people to make up any type of claim they want and detail you without letting you speak to a lawyer nor involve any courts.
    The reason given can be as ridiculous as 'He had terrorist looking hair' and still be valid. Plenty of legit reason to be afraid of those people.

    Not to mention the fact I have no doubt at least a subset of these checkpoints will be at places where fear is natural (IE airports, fear of flying, or fear of falling out of the sky in a fireball)

    Will deodorant and perfume be classified as a terrorist munition now?

  6. Fearolin? Criminofearolin? by Sockatume · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The idea that there's a special chemical signal for "fear in relation to criminal acts" seems to come out of absolutely nowhere. Shouldn't there be some research into whether such a chemical signal exists before device development occurs? If it's not a magic detector of latent emotion or the cause of emotion so I'm not sure how much better it would be than noticing which people "look a bit afraid". It's going to be just as susceptible to picking up people who find flying difficult or are worried about being falsely accused of being a terrorist because they look funny.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  7. The only thing we have to fear... by kevinNCSU · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They decided people weren't taking FDR's warning seriously enough so they'd give us a damn good reason to fear fear itself.

  8. Positive Feedback Loop? by rotide · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1: Develop System to detect when someone is "afraid"

    2: Let citizens know that those who are "afraid" will be detected, detained and questioned for "citizen safety".

    3: Citizens are now afraid to go through on the idea that maybe they will somehow set off the alarm.

    Tons of false positives. After the first story of a false positive, some people become afraid of being a false positive as well. As more and more stories of false positives arise, more and more people become afraid and become more false positives.

  9. No... no, you won't... by denzacar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Detect terrorists, that is.

    Not while there are anti-anxiety drugs out there.
    What you will detect is a bunch of false positives that will keep you busy "detecting" while trucks loaded with bags of ammonium-nitrate explosive merrily (but calmly) pass you by.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  10. Doubleplusgood? by Shienarier · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't this a step towards thought crime?
    "He's scared, arrest him!"

  11. Know what's a bigger problem than terrorism? by Spatial · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Almost everything.

  12. Last time I checked... by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Being afraid isn't a crime, nor is it probable cause for a search.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."