Slashdot Mirror
IBM Patenting Airport Profiling Technology
An anonymous reader writes "InformationWeek's Wolfe's Den reports that IBM has filed a dozen applications to patent a sophisticated airport security system which supports passive software-based profiling of potentially dangerous passengers off of pre-programmed rules. The setup uses a collection of sensors — video, motion, biometric and even olfactory — in terminals and around the airport perimeter, to supply raw data. 'These patents are built on the inference engine, which [analyzes sensor data and] has the ability to calculate very large data sets in real time,' says co-inventor Roger Angell. A small grid of networked computers delivers the necessary processing power. Two applications go one better than Israeli-style security, analyzing furtive glances to detect, according to the title of the patent application, 'Behavioral Deviations by Measuring Eye Movements,' as well as measuring respiratory patterns."
Ever vigilant against the dog with the shifty eyes.
...(if granted) never stand up in court unless something truly novel was listed because this sort of 'data fusion' has been going on in the security industry for the past 10 years.
There is a very specific reason you will only see this sort of 'product' in testing for the next 10 years - 'false positives.' That's a very very important phrase in the security industry because software based solutions are supposed to act as force multipliers (although historically they're used to reduce forces in order to lower costs through automation, not to augment it) and if you've a high 'false positive' rate (as ALL of these behavioral analysis systems do) you actually impede normal security operations. Research in this area of physical security is active and ongoing, but veyr unlikely to produce anything usable except in very specific scenarios (objects left behind, loitering, et cetera.)
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Yes of course, because no one tried to blow up a plane in the past month or so.... nobody ever gets past security with explosives and needs to be stopped by on board passengers ever....
@humanity: *facepalm*
Security in airports isn't inherently a bad thing, but to quote the internet "ur doin it wrong".
./er who I saw this from first(sorry I don't remember who you are).
Israel has been dealing for this threat on a much higher level for years. It's not as hassle free a solution as no security, but the wait times are substantially less, and success substantially better than America's Funniest Security Theater.
Thanks to the
Israelification of American Airports
Maybe the system works? When was the last time anyone heard of an attack on an El Al airplane?
And that the latest perp succeeded only in catching his pants on fire, points to some success. If there were no three-ounce rule, or no even haphazard searches, he wouldn't have bothered with the explosive underwear and instead just packed some C4 in his backpack.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Yes, in my experience flying El Al, that "trick" works splendidly. Particularly when the interview is conducted by a gun-toting human under the watchful eye of other gun-toting humans.
They've lightened up a bit in recent decades, but 40 years ago airport security in some parts of the world was serious stuff. Flying into Israel, at the check-in counter security required all passengers to check *all* of their baggage and carry-ons before proceeding to the boarding area - which was actually a large room opening to the apron where the aircraft waited. Passengers arrived in that room to find all of their baggage in neat rows on the floor where bomb-sniffing dogs were inspecting it. Oh, and there were more humans with guns.
Each passenger when called had to claim his/her baggage and then proceed with it to a station where it was searched while the passenger was carefully watched. From there to the apron. When all of the baggage and all of the people were on the apron, then the baggage was loaded on the plane. But not until then. Anything left behind in the boarding room meant that everybody had to stand with their baggage on the apron until it was claimed and accounted for.
By the time people actually got on the airplane they'd been interviewed once at check-in with their baggage and carry-ons then taken away from them, then scrutinized before entering the boarding room, then scrutinized while claiming their baggage after dogs had sniffed it, then scrutinized again while taking their baggage was being searched, and then scrutinized one more time before actually getting on board.
Made you feel reasonably certain that nothing was going to happen on the plane.