Shape of things to comeSeucring airports by reading people's minds (or bodies)

A mind is a terrible thing to waste not only in the sense of realizing one’s life potential, but also as a tool of detection for preventing terrorist attacks. DHS is now testing the next generation of security screening — a body scanner that can read your mind. On Monday we wrote about a patent application by a Drexel University researcher for a new infrared lie detector which measures brain activity associated with lying (see 22 September 2008 HS Daily Wire), and now Fox News’s Allison Barrie writes that that most preventive screening looks for explosives or metals that pose a threat, but a new system called MALINTENT turns the old school approach on its head. This machine detects the person — not the device — set to wreak havoc and terror.

MALINTENT, the brainchild of the cutting-edge Human Factors division DHS’s directorate for Science and Technology, searches the body for non-verbal cues that predict whether one means harm to fellow passengers. It has a series of sensors and imagers that read body temperature, heart rate, and respiration for unconscious indications invisible to the naked eye — signals terrorists and criminals may display in advance of an attack.

This is no polygraph test. Subjects do not get hooked up or strapped down for a careful reading; those sensors do all the work without any actual physical contact. Currently, all the sensors and equipment are packaged inside a mobile screening laboratory about the size of a trailer or large truck bed, and last week DHS put it to a field test in Maryland, scanning 144 mostly unwitting human subjects.

The 144 test subjects thought they were merely passing through an entrance way, but they actually passed through a series of sensors that screened them for bad intentions. DHS also selected a group of 23 attendees to be civilian “accomplices” in their test. They were each given a “disruptive device” to carry through the portal — and, unlike the other attendees, were conscious that they were on a mission. In order to conduct these tests on human subjects, DHS had to meet rigorous safety standards to ensure the screening would not cause any physical or emotional harm.

This is how it works. When the sensors identify that something is off, they transmit warning data to analysts, who decide whether to flag passengers for further questioning. The next step involves micro-facial scanning, which involves measuring minute muscle movements in the face for clues to mood and intention.