Danger Room What’s Next in National Security Sweat = Threat? Army Looks at ‘Abnormal Perspiration’ as Sign of ‘Harmful Intent’

Posted by Philip Dru on 5/31/09 • Categorized as Big Brother, Biometrics

If you walk weird, make funny faces, or sweat a little too much — watch out, when you walk into an airport. The U.S. military wants to use those irregularities as “indicators” of “possibly suspicious and harmful intent.”

The Army recently asked for proposals for a new suite of biometric sensors that will hunt for bad-minded people by examining their “expressions, gait, and pose” from afar. The “Image Analysis for Personnel Intent” project is also supposed to spot would-be evil-doers through their “abnormal perspiration and changes in body temperature.” (Note to would-be Osamas: Don’t send the sweaty guy to hijack the plane.)

The idea has been around for a while. Pentagon wacky science arm Darpa spent millions of dollars looking for unique “odortypes.” In 2002, by a team of Minnesota scientists used thermal changes around the eyes to spot deceit on a test of 20 new military recruits. The researchers claimed that their system nabbed the liars about 80 percent of the time – the same as a standard polygraph test. The following year, Boeing patented a device that used hyperspectral scans to identify surges in body temperature prior to “a stress-induced blush.” Hyperspectral systems monitor wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, which are emitted by living, breathing bodies, and can detect faint changes in heat that precede blushing or perspiration.

But one cannot confirm malice using sweat detection alone. The military wants a “light, portable” sensor that combines this hyperspectral system with spatial surveillance, to spot threatening changes in expressions and body movement. And while traditional biometrics measures — iris scans, fingerprint reads — have to be done up close, and on willing subjects, the Army wants to be able to zoom in on “individuals including those who are uncooperative in unconstrained indoor and outdoor situations at a distance of at least 45 meters from the target.”

The Army figures such a sensor could have widespread applications — “border patrol, stand-off interrogation, access control, surveillance and target acquisition and airport security.”

They’ve also got their eye on commercial uses, like running The Clapper out of business: “The system would initiate by attaining information about users intent rather than making it necessary for the user to initiate it manually (e.g. user focuses gaze on a switch, therefore initiating the switch to turn on a light).”

Wired | Noah Shachtman and Katie Drummond | Friday, May 29, 2009

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