Facial recognition pursued by US Department of Offense

09/15/2010

0 Comments

 
Picture

Read whole story at Physorg
“The government is interested in spotting people who might pose a danger,” Dr. Alice O’Toole said. “But they also don’t want to have too many false alarms and detain people who are not real risks.”

READ MORE
Add Comment
 

Skeletal scanning: Total recall like scanners cumming soon

08/25/2010

0 Comments

 
Picture
From Crunch Gear

Don’t you feel secure? Don’t you love the amazing level of security provided by all that sophisticated machinery at the airport, watched over as it is, admittedly, by sleepy TSA agents on power trips? But don’t you wish inwardly that they wouldn’t stop at looking through your bag and removing your clothes with radiation, and just get straight to x-raying you? Well good news, friends. A system is on its way that will add your unique skeletal structure to a database and will (if it works) be able to identify you at a distance.

Trying to get terrorists to look into retina scanners is hard! And facial recognition software can be fooled with trivial alterations like shaving or smiling. Fingerprints — come on! I could remove mine right now! “But they can’t disguise their bones,” says Phani Kidambi, one of the researchers in charge of a project intended to ID people from 150 feet away based on bone structure. The project is at Wright State Research Institute.

Okay, seriously. Not only is this a creepy idea, but it appears they haven’t actually thought it through. First, they have to get detailed bone structure scans of every known criminal and terrorist (their idea, not mine). Then they have to prove that they can detect that bone structure through clothing and flesh — and then they have to design something that can do it from a distance.

Are you kidding me? This system will be as easy to fool as the next one. Unless they’re developing some kind of high-powered X-ray they’re planning on constantly blasting airport crowds with, they’ll have to rely on extended spectrum imagery. And that can be fooled by a HUGE number of factors. They talk about the potential of seeing someone “where the face doesn’t match, but the bones match…That definitely is a person of extreme interest because it appears he’s tried to change his face.” Great, so this technology also reliably detects faces in high fidelity as well! And I’m sure there’s no chance of a false positive!

READ MORE

Add Comment
 

Brainscans to be used as lie detectors (but not on compulsive greedy liars running world)

06/07/2010

0 Comments

 
Picture

From BBC news June 7th 7:00AM 2010

Brain scans being misused as lie detectors, experts sayBy Caroline Parkinson Health reporter, BBC NewsMRI scans are an established way of diagnosing brain conditionsMeasures are needed to stop brain scans being misused by courts, insurers and employers, experts have warned.

Some research suggests the technique can show whether a person is lying if certain areas of the brain "light-up".

At least one US company is offering scans to employers recruiting staff but American courts have already rejected attempts to use them in legal cases.

The University of Edinburgh's Burkhard Schafer said there were issues over privacy and reliability of technology.

The subject is being discussed by experts from around the world at a conference at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Glasgow.

'The next frontier'

Attempts have been made to use magnetic resonance imaging scans as lie detectors or to demonstrate mental health problems in more than 90 capital punishment cases in the US, as well as in other proceedings in Europe and Asia.



 As soon as public awareness increases there will be interest from everyone from daytime entertainment programmes to employers and the legal system Burkhard Schafer, University of EdinburghWhile they have been rejected in many cases, scan results have sometimes been accepted as evidence.

Mr Schafer, co-director of the SCRIPT Centre for Research in Intellectual Property and Technology at the University of Edinburgh's school of law, said the UK had to consider how to prevent MRI scans being misused - and how to protect people's privacy.

"After data mining and online profiling, brain imaging could well become the next frontier in the privacy wars.

"The promise to read a person's mind is beguiling, and some applications will be greatly beneficial.

Add Comment
 

Children to thumbscan to borrow disinformation from library

05/28/2010

0 Comments

 
Picture

Children, 4, 'to be fingerprinted to borrow school books from library' By Andrew Hough

From The telegraph


Critics labelled the plans 'appalling' and a waste of resources. Photo: GETTY IMAGESStudents in Manchester are having their thumbprints digitally transformed into electronic codes, which can then be recognised by a computer program.

Under the scheme, pupils swipe a bar code inside the book they want borrow then press their thumb on to a scanner to authorise the loan. Books are returned in the same way.
The scheme is being trialled on junior classes at Higher Lane Primary in Whitefield, Bury, Greater Manchester.

Officials confirmed it is due to be extended to all pupils at the school, one of the areas largest primary schools, with 453 pupils aged four to 11.

School authorities defended the scheme on Thursday, and moved to reassure parents that the voluntary system, is heavily encrypted or coded and that no images of fingerprints would be stored.

But critics said they were “appalled” at the system, developed by Microsoft which is also being trialled in other parts of the country.

“This is quite clearly appalling,” said Phil Booth, national coordinator of NO2ID, a privacy campaign group.

“For such a trivial issue as taking out of library books the taking of fingerprints is way over the top and wrong.

“It conditions children to hand over sensitive personal information.”

He added: “The money for such a system could be spent on actual school resources. How about some more books for the library instead?

“This needs to be rolled back or stopped. I would argue there is no justification for such a scheme.



Read more
Add Comment