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Wii Balance Boards will keep you safe in the airport.....wait what?!

Oct 12, 2009#1

Hylian

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176441

DHS Investigating Using Wii Balance Boards for Airport Security

File this one in our favorite category of \"Crazy S*** We're Grateful to Have Lived to See\": CNN reports (via Yahoo! Games) that the Department of Homeland Security is investigating whether Wii Balance Boards can be used in airport security lines to identify unusually fidgety passengers who can be targeted for a more focused screening. The Balance Board experiments are part of a new DHS project called \"Future Attribute Screening Technology,\" or \"FAST\" (see what they did there?). The idea is to measure \"physiological signs\" that could indicate \"whether you might have the desire or intent to do harm,\" and one of those potential signs is an unusually high amount of fidgetiness.
This is where the Balance Board comes in, as researchers are using a modified Balance Board to read the subtle body weight shifts of the person standing on it, with the intent being to determine whether there's \"a level of fidgeting\" that could mark a person for additional security screening. It's not just fidgeting that researchers are looking into, though -- it's one of a number of potential signals that the FAST project is trying to read, including heart rate, breathing, eye movement, and body temperature.
Which clearly means one thing: FAST researchers are probably going to want to look into Nintendo's Vitality Sensor once it comes out. Who knew Nintendo was secretly sliding into the security technologies sector?

Now I know this has to deal with Nintendo but I didn't think this story really belonged in the Media Madness Sub Board. But if a Mod disagrees feel free to move it there and I apologize in advance if you do move it.

Oct 12, 2009#2

General Specific

Oh this will not be good for me. I'm naturally fidgety and get nervous about flying, so I can see being taken aside by this quite frequently if it is implemented.

Oct 12, 2009#3

Silvanesti

the wha?

"you have trouble keeping you balence, you're a terrorist!"

Oct 12, 2009#4

SpecialKO

Silvanesti said:
the wha?

"you have trouble keeping you balence, you're a terrorist!"

Yeah....

Aren't a significant portion of the population fidgety and stressed out going through airport security?

Especially when you gave yourself a 2-hour window, but traffic lost you half an hour, check-in lost you 40 min, and the security line is estimated to take an hour?

Oct 12, 2009#5

ThatNickGuy

This is all part of Nintendo's grande scheme to take over the world.

But hey, maybe this means there will be Wii's in the waiting areas of airports while your flight is delayed. I'd be down for that,

Oct 12, 2009#6

Hailey Knight

The airport is the worst part about flying. I'd still ace this, but I can see people who get agitated and thus shuffle around a lot when in the airport.

Oct 12, 2009#7

Chibibar

I don't think this will work. A lot of people get nervous and fidgity about flying, enclose space, and all the security. Heck even paranoia might cause a false positive.

Oct 12, 2009#8

MindDetective

Guys, this is why they are testing this. They want to be able to tell the nervous fliers from the ones that might be trouble. It is unlikely that they will do this entirely by fidgeting either, but establish a whole profile based upon body temperature, fidgeting, etc. On top of that, it is only to try and select out people for extra screening, rather than rely solely on random testing. I'm actually more in favor of random testing, because someone could potentially beat the system with muscle relaxants or training. Unless they have something like facial recognition software or ways to check for drugs that are fast and accurate, the balance boards aren't going to be a major factor.

Oct 12, 2009#9

Dave

And if the line is long you can do the hula hoop game. You get in shape but you look like an idiot doing it.

Oct 12, 2009#10

figmentPez

I already get searched just about every time I fly, this probably wouldn't make things worse for me. Still, it seems like it would be prone to false positives.

Also, how modified is this? Is it replacing a section of the floor, or do they have to specifically ask people to stand on it?

Oct 12, 2009#11

Chibibar

MindDetective said:
Guys, this is why they are testing this. They want to be able to tell the nervous fliers from the ones that might be trouble. It is unlikely that they will do this entirely by fidgeting either, but establish a whole profile based upon body temperature, fidgeting, etc. On top of that, it is only to try and select out people for extra screening, rather than rely solely on random testing. I'm actually more in favor of random testing, because someone could potentially beat the system with muscle relaxants or training. Unless they have something like facial recognition software or ways to check for drugs that are fast and accurate, the balance boards aren't going to be a major factor.

that is the problem. I mean there are people who can beat lie detector machines. I can't but I hear with training some can.

Oct 12, 2009#12

Silver Jelly

"FAST"? What is this, the newest project from SHIELD? Maybe UNCLE? A secret idea of CONTROL technicians?

Oct 12, 2009#13

ZenMonkey

If you have to pee, you're screwed.

Oct 13, 2009#14

JCM

Oh dear, guess anyone who is impatient/needing to go to the loo/has fear of flying/etc will be screwed.

But after body searches, cavity poking, Xray machines that allow guards to see you nude, and now wii balance boards, what other hilarious ideas will they invent?

Oct 13, 2009#15

figmentPez

JCM said:
But after body searches, cavity poking, Xray machines that allow guards to see you nude, and now wii balance boards, what other hilarious ideas will they invent?

You forgot about the air blasts. They can detect explosives by shooting a gust of air at you, vacuuming up the dust particles, and then burning that dust. I've got to wonder just what can lead to a false positive on this test, since I just found out ping-pong balls are made from nitrocellulose (well, celluloid). I had a friend who used to play with sandpaper on his paddle, to get better spin. I wonder if dust from that would be enough to set off sensors.

Then there's facial recognition, combined with behavior analysis that analyzes the movement of people and somehow determines if people are suspicious by how long they stand in different spots.

And apparently bees are even better at sniffing out explosives than dogs are, but that's military use and not at airports... yet.

Oct 13, 2009#16

Terrik

Dogs with bees in their mouths are coming

Oct 13, 2009#17

Kitty Sinatra

The great benefit of that is when drugs are found on someone they're bitten and stung, leaving no need for further punishment.

Oct 13, 2009#18

drawn_inward

figmentPez said:
You forgot about the air blasts. They can detect explosives by shooting a gust of air at you, vacuuming up the dust particles, and then burning that dust. I've got to wonder just what can lead to a false positive on this test, since I just found out ping-pong balls are made from nitrocellulose (well, celluloid). I had a friend who used to play with sandpaper on his paddle, to get better spin. I wonder if dust from that would be enough to set off sensors.

My girlfriend was stopped b/c they detected something in/on her backpack. They pulled all the stuff out, and swabbed it with these filter papers and stuck them in a machine, which must have told them, bomb. They call for a higher authority to come check out the results. This dude shows up and takes one look at my gf and said let her go.

I know these guys are just doing their job, and I know I wouldn't want to be the dude that let some yahoo through that blew up a plane, but it seems like it's a bit of a SNAFU.

Oct 14, 2009#19

JCM

drawn_inward;274425][quote=figmentPez said:
You forgot about the air blasts. They can detect explosives by shooting a gust of air at you, vacuuming up the dust particles, and then burning that dust. I've got to wonder just what can lead to a false positive on this test, since I just found out ping-pong balls are made from nitrocellulose (well, celluloid). I had a friend who used to play with sandpaper on his paddle, to get better spin. I wonder if dust from that would be enough to set off sensors.

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