New Scientist (08/11/07) Vol. 195, No. 2616, P. 24 ; Marks, Paul
The U.S. Homeland Security Department's Project Hostile Intent (PHI) has the ambitious goal of projecting "current or future hostile intentions" among the 400 million people who enter the country each year through remote behavior analysis systems, according to DHS representative Larry Orluskie. He explains that PHI intends to identify physical markers (blood pressure, heartbeat, facial expressions, etc.) associated with hostility or the desire to deceive, and apply this knowledge toward the development of "real-time, culturally independent, non-invasive sensors" and software that can spot such behaviors. Such sensors could include infrared light, heart rate and respiration sensors, eye tracking, laser, audio, and video. For four years, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration has been using the Screening Passengers through Observation Techniques (SPOT) program to detect suspicious people through study of micro-expressions--involuntary facial telltales that indicate attempts to deceive--but the process is costly and arduous, and is not something a baggage screener or customs official can do in addition to their regular duties. The automation of the SPOT program, with computers instead of people screening for micro-expressions and other suspicious bodily indicators, is the impetus behind PHI. Experts doubt that such capability could be accomplished by the end of the decade, if at all, and are skeptical that such systems could identify hostile micro-expressions in a potential terrorist, given the lack of knowledge about and complexity of such expressions. Another unknown factor is whether such signs could be spotted hours or even weeks before a terrorist incident. There is also the danger that innocents who are highly emotional or aggravated due to stress might be flagged as potential terrorists.(go to web site)
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