Look Out Marvin...

“NASA plans to read terrorist's minds at airports

By Frank J. Murray
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


Airport security screeners may soon try to read the minds of travelers to identify terrorists.
Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have told Northwest Airlines security specialists that the agency is developing brain-monitoring devices in cooperation with a commercial firm, which it did not identify.
Space technology would be adapted to receive and analyze brain-wave and heartbeat patterns, then feed that data into computerized programs "to detect passengers who potentially might pose a threat," according to briefing documents obtained by The Washington Times.
NASA wants to use "noninvasive neuro-electric sensors," imbedded in gates, to collect tiny electric signals that all brains and hearts transmit. Computers would apply statistical algorithms to correlate physiologic patterns with computerized data on travel routines, criminal background and credit information from "hundreds to thousands of data sources," NASA documents say.
The notion has raised privacy concerns. Mihir Kshirsagar of the Electronic Privacy Information Center says such technology would only add to airport-security chaos. "A lot of people's fear of flying would send those meters off the chart. Are they going to pull all those people aside?"
The organization obtained documents July 31, the product of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration, and offered the documents to this newspaper.
Mr. Kshirsagar's organization is concerned about enhancements already being added to the Computer-Aided Passenger Pre-Screening (CAPPS) system. Data from sensing machines are intended to be added to that mix.
NASA aerospace research manager Herb Schlickenmaier told The Times the test proposal to Northwest Airlines is one of four airline-security projects the agency is developing. It's too soon to know whether any of it is working, he says.
"There are baby steps for us to walk through before we can make any pronouncements," says Mr. Schlickenmaier, the Washington official overseeing scientists who briefed Northwest Airlines on the plan. He likened the proposal to a super lie detector that would also measure pulse rate, body temperature, eye-flicker rate and other biometric aspects sensed remotely.
Though adding mind reading to screening remains theoretical, Mr. Schlickenmaier says, he confirms that NASA has a goal of measuring brain waves and heartbeat rates of airline passengers as they pass screening machines.
This has raised concerns that using noninvasive procedures is merely a first step. Private researchers say reliable EEG brain waves are usually measurable only by machines whose sensors touch the head, sometimes in a "thinking cap" device. "To say I can take that cap off and put sensors in a doorjamb, and as the passenger starts walking through [to allow me to say] that they are a threat or not, is at this point a future application," Mr. Schlickenmaier said in an interview.
"Can I build a sensor that can move off of the head and still detect the EEG?" asks Mr. Schlickenmaier, who led NASA's development of airborne wind-shear detectors 20 years ago. "If I can do that, and I don't know that right now, can I package it and [then] say we can do this, or no we can't? We are going to look at this question. Can this be done? Is the physics possible?"
Two physics professors familiar with brain-wave research, but not associated with NASA, questioned how such testing could be feasible or reliable for mass screening. "What they're saying they would do has not been done, even wired in," says a national authority on neuro-electric sensing, who asked not to be identified. He called NASA's goal "pretty far out."
Both professors also raised privacy concerns.
"Screening systems must address privacy and 'Big Brother' issues to the extent possible," a NASA briefing paper, presented at a two-day meeting at Northwest Airlines headquarters in St. Paul, Minn., acknowledges. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional police efforts to use noninvasive "sense-enhancing technology" that is not in general public use in order to collect data otherwise unobtainable without a warrant. However, the high court consistently exempts airports and border posts from most Fourth Amendment restrictions on searches.
"We're getting closer to reading minds than you might suppose," says Robert Park, a physics professor at the University of Maryland and spokesman for the American Physical Society. "It does make me uncomfortable. That's the limit of privacy invasion. You can't go further than that."
"We're close to the point where they can tell to an extent what you're thinking about by which part of the brain is activated, which is close to reading your mind. It would be terribly complicated to try to build a device that would read your mind as you walk by." The idea is plausible, he says, but frightening.
At the Northwest Airlines session conducted Dec. 10-11, nine scientists and managers from NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., proposed a "pilot test" of the Aviation Security Reporting System.
NASA also requested that the airline turn over all of its computerized passenger data for July, August and September 2001 to incorporate in NASA's "passenger-screening testbed" that uses "threat-assessment software" to analyze such data, biometric facial recognition and "neuro-electric sensing."
Northwest officials would not comment.
Published scientific reports show NASA researcher Alan Pope, at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., produced a system to alert pilots or astronauts who daydream or "zone out" for as few as five seconds.
The September 11 hijackers helped highlight one weakness of the CAPPS system. They did dry runs that show whether a specific terrorist is likely to be identified as a threat. Those pulled out for special checking could be replaced by others who do not raise suspicions. The September 11 hijackers cleared security under their own names, even though nine of them were pulled aside for extra attention.”

“Hey! I was just about to post that. Did you steal my thoughts or something?”

“LOL!

now that's freaky stuff...”

“Whoa.”

“what if they're wearing tinfoil hats??”

“Now if Vanguard Airlines is bought out by Hooter's, what will the machine register on male passenger's minds?

Perhaps we will also need to wear tinfoil condoms.”

“I'm suddenly reminded of that airport scene in "This is Spinal Tap".”

“the horror”

“They should hire my ex-'s. They read my mind and that's why I have ex-s.”

“Don't believe everything you read. This could (read, could)be propaganda to dupe would-be terrorists into thinking their thoughts are being read, as a deterrent tool.

While I didn't read the lengthy article (another caveat), it reminds me of an absurd article that the local cops put in the paper a few years ago before New Years Eve. They claimed they developed a bullet trajectory formula that would enable them to trace a wayward bullet that had been fired into the New Year's Eve night back to its owner -- after it had landed in someone's head or other body part. Yeah, right.”

“But steve , they said they closed the Office of Strategic Influence.

Ohhhh... riiiiight. I get it.

A wink is as good as a nudge to a blind man.”

“All Your Base Are Belong To Us.”

“hey Tilt, what is that from? i totally recognize it, and i know it was hilarious, but i can't quite place it...”

“I might be wrong, but I think Al Gore coined the phrase.”

“hey, you were right, Violin!
i found it! /a>”

“thanks, HPM! same thing, different links. (and isn't mine pretty? ;-)”

“Just smashing!”

“why thaaaaank you, daaahling!”

“HAHAHAhahahaahahahhaha...”

“They can't even make fully reliable lie detectors when they hook people up. They would have a hell of a time developing anything that could do useful remote scanning.”

“Just in case Stumprider missed it, LOL...”

“Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington August 20, 2002
(Phone: 202/358-1979)

RELEASE: 02-160

NASA REJECTS CLAIMS IT PLANS MIND READING CAPABILITY

NASA managers today said published media reports
suggesting the agency plans to read the minds of potential
terrorists go too far and ignore the facts and science behind
the research.

The articles were based on a NASA presentation, which served
as talking points for a meeting with Northwest Airlines in
December 2001. The presentation was in response to the call
from the Federal Government for all agencies to look inward
and find what could be done to help in the war on terrorism.

"NASA does not have the capability to read minds, nor are we
suggesting that would be done," said Robert Pearce, Director,
NASA's Strategy and Analysis Division in the Office of
Aerospace Technology in Washington. "Our scientists were
asked to think outside the box with regards to ideas that
could aid the nation in the war on terrorism and that's what
they are doing. We have not approved any research in this
area and because of the sensitivity of such research, we will
seek independent review before we do."

The information contained in the presentation identified
research and development challenges that NASA is currently
aware of in the information technology arena, and the agency
offered some limited thoughts and proposed possible solutions
in this field. Some of the ideas will take several years of
effort to establish, if there is a practical application.

-end-

* * *

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“I thought I was the thread killer...”

“Ya can't kill something that's already dead, LOL”