The Down-Shift to Higher Paranoia Gear

    In the not too far different future it just won't pay to be different. "We're trying to develop technologies that indicate the differences between normal passengers and those who may be a threat to others, or themselves," said Catherine Neary of BAE Systems. She was talking about the new seat-back cameras that are planned to focus on airline passenger's faces and analyze their nervous tics, grimaces and fluttering eyelids via behavioral software. BAe Systems claim that the software being developed is so sophisticated and sensitive that it will be able to take account of flyers with a natural twitch or even first-time flyers. It's all part of the Paris-based Security Of Aircraft In The Future European Environment (SAFEE) project. This little humdinger is called the Onboard Threat Detection System. Rapid eye movements, blinking excessively, licking lips or ways of stroking hair or ears are classic symptoms of somebody trying to conceal something. Besides analyzing facial expressions, there will also be a hidden microphone to listen for Koranic invocations (usually heard in the moments before fundamentalists dive airplanes into the ocean or start fumbling for their matches to light up their shoes).
    Years of experience have shown that blink-rates are critical indicators of nervous stress levels. Mrs Neary, team leader of this futuristic Big Brother Project, assured that at the end of each flight all video, audio and other recordings would be destroyed so that civil liberties would not be infringed. However she had nothing to say about the flight abort rate for people play-acting for the system or for false alarm alerts. Drug addicts not carrying but in dire need of a fix will possibly be a major source of false alarms. Heavy drinkers licking their lips and dieters salivating at the sight of a passing filet mignon may also trigger random alerts. It's not known either whether the flight-deck is planned to be similarly equipped with pinhole cameras or drool alerting sensors.
    Under SAFEE, European scientists are spending £25million developing a system which they hope will make it virtually impossible to hijack an airliner. A British Airways security representative said that an improved emphasis on screening and preventing terrorists boarding the aircraft would probably be of more value. MORE