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Homeland Security: Wii Balance Board Can Help Us Catch Terrorists
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Jason Mick
October 13, 2009
What does a U.S. Department of Homeland
Security checkpoint and an a retirement
home have in common? A Wii might be playing a prominent
role in both.
What sounds like a joke may soon be a reality
thanks to an unusual idea dreamed up by our national security’s top
minds on how to catch
potential terrorists before they act. Funded by $20M USD in
taxpayer money, the project delves deeply into telltale
signs of suspicious behavior.
It looks to monitor
temperature, breathing, and eye movements of passengers to screen for
potentially dangerous individuals. And it uses a special fourth
test to also detect such individuals – a Nintendo Wii balance
board.
It’s no secret that law
enforcement officials love the Wii, so perhaps it’s unsurprising
that one ended up in Homeland Security’s high-tech terrorist
screener. In theory, a nervous
terrorist, according to officials and body language experts,
would be more likely to shuffle their feet. The Wii balance
board helps them identify feet shufflers and earmark them for further
screening. Other screens dreamed up by the researchers include
measuring the interval between heartbeats, and how deeply someone
inhales.
According to a discussion with CNN.com,
Homeland Security officials describe the results as “significantly
better than chance”. Project manager Robert Burns insists
that the concept does not violate privacy or personal rights, and
that it is supported by “a vast plethora of research over the
past 40 years.”
In all, the project is called Future
Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) and it’s drawing lots of
attention. And not all of that attention is positive.
States Joe Stanley of the ACLU, “Nobody has the right to look at
my intimate bodily functions, my breathing, my perspiration rate, my
heart rate, from afar. They need to use old-fashioned,
shoe-leather law enforcement investigative techniques, chase down
known evidence, known suspects and get out there and do a good,
competent basic job in investigating terrorist groups.”
Mr.
Stanley might have to get used to the idea, though. Homeland
Security’s Burns says that the organization is targeting 2011 for a
trial deployment.
_© 2009, DailyTech
verakot
about 1 month ago
116 comments
C'mon, now terrorosts need to buy Wii to practice foot balance! Also it is no so fun at the airports right now, staying in line and removing shoes - but with the Wii it's another type of game!
soloist010
about 1 month ago
6 comments
hahaha, this is hilarious.....
ShadeNocturne
about 1 month ago
2 comments
This whole idea is absurd. "Significantly better than chance" isn't something to brag about at all.
BigDave469, I'm sure everyone would appreciate it if you could keep your comments intelligent and free of slurs and bias. There are many ways to communicate your point without putting down millions and billions of people across the globe. Plus, coupled with your atrocious grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, it makes you look ignorant.
obiwanstoney
about 1 month ago
6 comments
Also why does it take 20 mil to do the research I could probably do it for $100. And it wont be ready until 2011 are you serous. The must have the dummest IT department ever.
obiwanstoney
about 1 month ago
6 comments
What a stupid idea. this is a complete waste of our money and provides no real protection. What about the Innocent people that are nervous because its there first time on a plane and what happens if that person is from the middle east are they going to then take them and torture them because a stupid toy told them they might be a terrorist. How about doing some real work and not wasting our money on stupidity. That's our gov for you. Bush created the department homeland stupidity.
green_ranger
about 1 month ago
8 comments
pretty soon they'll start investing into guitar hero guitars for fingerprinting....one word... A$$h0l3s....Oh and are you serious about the "TOP MINDS" thinking about this? What do we have flipping five year olds defending our nation? Or are the top minds playing super smash bros and thinking of ingenious ways to humiliate the world of travel? This is something you'd see in Bush's administration not Obama's. Ridiculous....
DoNotBlameMS
about 1 month ago
4 comments
Stupidest idea I have ever heard of. Another $20 million wasted.
Phoenix701
about 1 month ago
2 comments
One more nail in the coffin of ever boarding another plane. The terrorists have succeeded in terrorizing this country more then they could have ever imagined or hoped for and just like lemmings we all just keep putting up with it. Are we really this afraid or just stupid and lazy?
aboland
about 1 month ago
4 comments
BigDave469, could you please refrain from impugning homosexuals in your efforts to put down Homeland Security. I resent the implication that my sexual identity is fit to sling as an insult, and I resent the association with an ineffective government body.
pratikf
about 1 month ago
26 comments
What about those terrorists who aren't nervous? What about my mom who has arthritis and is definitely not going to be able to balance without shaking...? This is ridiculous!
axltrauts
about 1 month ago
2 comments
besides being a good notice for Wii and its revolutionary technology, I think that this is a bad idea. there are so many people at the airport that gets nervous taking a flight or anxious to get home, that this idea can be just another degrading delay before taking a plane. Freedom over security... what a shame
dhaas
about 1 month ago
8 comments
This is just another way the government is training us to be slaves. First you must walk through this scanner, then you have to take your PC out of its bag, then you must take off your shoes. At this rate we will have to go through security naked, oh wait they are already doing that! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1077800/Airport-admits-stri...
BigDave469
about 1 month ago
52 comments
Well as on who is too large what will the process be? I could just see the stupid TSA agent... They tell me to stand on the board and it says "error" and than they have to AXE a supervisor for help because they don't know what "Error" means... meanwhile, the supervisor is using his Wii to play "Punch Out" so that he is more agile defending the skys against honest people. Let's face it folks, the entire TSA and most of homo security should be disbanded... let everyone carry everything on planes and just deal with it in the air... someone acts up... well the flight attendents should be trained like cops and be able to shoot, tase and martial art any stupid people down! Oh well, that makes too much sense, so we will never see that happen but I can dream!
aboland
about 1 month ago
4 comments
This is absurd.
a) How many people are nervous at the airport? Oh, just everyone who's listening to their final boarding call while standing in the Security Theatre line.
b) Are terrorists nervous? They are, after all, trained soldiers operating from deep personal convictions.
I call bull$#!+ on the Wii terror screening idea. It's couched in American assumptions about behavior that have not been tested, much less proved. What a colossal waste of resources.