Nervous About Flying? You might be placed on a “NO FLY” list!
Maryland (Sept. 19, 2008) — Technology and big brother gadgets, for better or worse, have taken us to the next possible step in TSA screening. A passenger’s quickened heart rate and heavy breathing sets off an alarm. A machine senses his skin temperature jumping. TSA crews move in to question him and further the investigation. Is he a terrorist? Or is he simply a passenger nervous about flying?
The US Department of Homeland Security has high hopes that screening biometrics, can weed out the bad guys, before they strike. Critics doubt such a system can work. The idea, they say, subjects innocent travelers to the intrusion of a medical exam. The futuristic machinery works on the same theory as a polygraph, looking for sharp swings in body temperature, pulse and breathing that signal the kind of anxiety exuded by a would-be terrorist or criminal. Unlike a lie-detector test that wires subjects to sensors as they answer questions, the “Future Attribute Screening Technology” (FAST) scans people as they walk by a set of cameras.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has trained more than 2,000 screeners to observe passengers as they walk through airports, questioning those who seem oddly agitated or nervous.
The system would be portable and fast, said project manager Robert Burns, who envisions machines that scan people as they walk into airports, train stations or arenas. Those flagged by the machines would be interviewed in front of cameras that measure minute facial movements for signs they are lying.
Like the TSA’s program, FAST raises reliability questions. Even if machines can spot someone whose heart rate jumps suddenly, that may signal the agitation of learning a flight is delayed, or simply fear of flying.
To pinpoint the underlying physiological reactions that occur with hostile intent, researchers set up two labs outside Washington, D.C. Science and Technology recruited 140 local people with newspaper and Internet ads seeking testers in a “security study.” Subjects walked one by one into a trailer with a makeshift checkpoint. A heat camera measured skin temperature. A motion camera watched for tiny skin movements to measure heart and breathing rates.
As a screener questioned each tester, five observers in another trailer looked for sharp jumps on the computerized bands that display the person’s physiological characteristics. Some subjects were instructed in advance to try to cause a disruption when they got past the checkpoint, and to lie about their intentions when being questioned. Those people’s physiological responses are being used to create a database of reactions that signal someone may be planning an attack. More testing is planned for the next year.
Richard Fan is a practicing emergency/trauma physican assistant in a busy Southern California ER, and an medical officer on the national disaster response team, DMAT CA-1. Routinely treating victims of assault, rape, and robbery, he has developed a passion and expertise in Personal Safety Thru Smart Technology. Learn more about these and other Smart Life Store products at www.smartlifestore.com
Passing through TSA has become such a nonsense I am even willing to drive 6-8 hours these days. Whatever advancements they may bring, there will always be false positives in identifying suspects. Nice article.
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Hi, I was looking around for a while searching for safety security and I happened upon this site and your post regarding About Flying? You might be placed on a “NO FLY” list! - Protection Talk, I will definitely this to my safety security bookmarks!
Good afternoon. Bob here from the TSA EoS Blog. Just so you know, the TSA does not place passengers on watch lists. The FBI maintains the list. There are 2,500 people on the list and less than 10% are from the United States.
You will not be placed on any list for being nervous at the airport. Most folks that travel through our airports are nervous or stressed about something. Our Behavior Detection Officers are trained to look for certain types of behaviors and are well aware that folks are a bit out of their element.
Thanks,
Blogger Bob
TSA EoS Blog Team
http://www.tsa.gov/blog
The whole “no fly” list is just stupid. It ends making too many people not flying and doing very little for protection. It should be up to the airline companies not the government.
I really hope that I never have any of these troubles with this whole “no fly” list thing. I just want to fly and get to my place.
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