Thursday
9 Aug 2007
Coming to an Airport Near You: Project Hostile Intent
By Annie Jacobsen in category Airport Security & Screening
Never mind training humans to do their jobs, New Scientist Magazine reveals that the Department of Homeland Security is working to develop a system of devices that will detect would-be terrorists in a crowd. The program, called Project Hostile Intent, will involve video cameras, infra-red audio recordings, eye-tracking and laserlight technologies working to scan crowds for suspicious people. Project Hostile Intent is set for trial tests at US airports, borders and ports in 2012.
It sounds far-fetched, but this is the aim of Project Hostile Intent (PHI), the latest anti-terrorism idea from the US Department of Homeland Security. According to DHS spokesman Larry Orluskie, the DHS wants to develop systems that can analyse behaviour [sic] remotely to predict which of the 400 million people who enter the US every year have current or future hostile intentions.
The Guardian is running an article about the project in its Science news section.
Under Project Hostile Intent, scientists will aim to build devices that can pick up tell-tale signs of hostile intent or deception from people's heart rates, perspiration and tiny shifts in facial expressions.
The project was launched by the US department of homeland security with a call to security companies and government laboratories for assistance.