Airline security has already been perfected in Israel,
where highly trained screeners have been routinely detecting and preventing
terrorists from boarding aircraft for decades. In the United
States, however, technology will likely
substitute for our lack of qualified screeners.
Following are methods used to detect terrorists:
Eye Contact
In order to board an El Al aircraft in Tel Aviv, a terrorist
has to get past multiple levels of highly trained screeners, each of whom looks
the passenger straight in the eye and asks pointed, personal questions. Any
nervous twitch, diversion from eye contact or other slight body-language
telltales will result in the passenger having to wade through several more
intensely confronting screening sessions—from meticulously going through every
item in your carry-on bag to a complete strip search.
A shortage of highly trained security screeners in the United
States, however, makes technology the answer
to securing airports here. You already know about the millimeter wavelength
full body scanners that the U.S.
airports are starting to employ, but below are a few other alternatives that
you may not have heard about.
WeCU
WeCU Technologies (Caesarea,
Israel) automates the
security procedures that Israeli screeners use by substituting symbols on a
video screen for the pointed questions and video recognition software
algorithms for eye contact. As passengers approach the security checkpoint,
they are presented with images that terrorists cannot help but recognize, such
as terror-group logos and symbols commonly used on extremist Websites. Video
cameras and noninvasive sensors then scan viewers as they walk past the images,
looking for signs of involuntary recognition, such as pupil dilation or a rise
in skin temperature.
Gate Keeper
With its Gate Keeper, Nemesysco (Natania,
Israel) automates the
pointed question-and-answer session that Israeli screeners use. Passengers
waiting in line for security screening would verbally answer a short questionnaire.
Voice recognition software then analyzes parameters in the passengers'
responses for suspect mental states like dishonesty. Nemesysco claims its voice
analysis algorithms can identify the emotional state of the passenger and
distinguish between criminal intent and the typical exhausted or excited
passenger.
FAST
The Department of Homeland Security has its own automated
lie-detector technology called the Future Attribute Screening Technology that
it is currently testing. Like Gate Keeper, FAST
is intended to identify hostile intent in a passenger by asking questions. But
instead of voice analysis, FAST observes
pulse rate, skin temperature, breathing, facial expression, body movement,
pupil dilation and other cues.
Puffers
U.S.
airports may soon be asking all passengers to walk through "puffers"
that can detect trace amounts of explosives. GE Security's EntryScan, for
instance, is a walk-through portal that puffs air onto the traveler to draw out
vapors from underneath clothing, then analyses them for explosive residue. A
handheld version called the VaporTracer has a stalk that could be inserted into
sensitive areas that screeners in the United
States are not allowed to touch.
