Wii balance board could be used in fruitless airport security effort
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 10th 2009 10:02AM
posted Oct 10th 2009 10:02AM
You know that sweeping feeling of guilt that comes over you every time you're pulled over as part of a "standard traffic stop?" Yeah, those natural emotions are about to make you look incredibly suspicious on the way to your next flight -- or it will if the FAST project is ever turned into reality. The Homeland Security-funded Future Attribute Screening Technology effort, which has already ate away at $20 million in taxpayer dollars, essentially hopes to let flyers keep all of their clothes on while forcing them to stand on a Wii balance board (or similar) and have an array of sensors watch their every reaction to a battery of questions. The problem? Every innocent person on the planet's going to start sweating and shaking just being in that kind of scenario, and only the trained terrorists of the world are apt to be able to put truth aside and fake the machine into thinking everything is cool. Oh sure, we're being a little dramatic here, but seriously -- maybe the TSA should just require a complete life history as a prerequisite to boarding.[Via Popular Science]
somehow i figured the board was just plain useless?
Another useless piece of crap in another long line of failures by the NTSB to make rich, white people feel safe. The average male can balance for approximately 4-5 seconds, the average female 5-6 seconds on a balance board. Source: Pacific Science Center display with a balance board. I certainly could not balance on it for more than 4 seconds, and it took a couple tries. This device proves nothing other than that people cannot balance for any length of time. Safety at airports is an ILLUSION.
$20 million? they could have bought the board on Amazon for 90 bucks.
The balance board isn't useless. It's there to distract you while TSA goons steal stuff from your bags.
If anyone is wondering why I'm ragging on the TSA so much today, it's because yesterday I got back from an international trip (to China) and saw how much worse we Americans treat ourselves and others than do people in other countries. In general (with some exceptions, such as Israel, which is deservedly paranoid), other countries have only instituted draconian airport security theater because of pressure from the U.S. government. Fortunately, those that I've seen haven't (yet) taken it to the same insane, abusive, utterly worthless level that we have, but our irrational risk-intolerance is dragging the entire world down with us. This is the true meaning of "democracy", as we practice it.
Oh, and despite the propaganda we're constantly spoonfed (now that we don't have the USSR to pick on any more), the government of "Communist China" in general takes a much more laissez-faire approach to governing than does that of the U.S. It is WE who live in a police state, significantly more so than the Chinese. Dissidents generally suffer more in China than in the U.S. (though, remember Kent State, our own Tiananmen Square), but the AVERAGE person there has considerably more freedom from persecution and incessant big-brother oversight than here. It should be obvious that America's constant ragging on other countries for human rights abuses is hypocritical and only a means to divert attention from out own misbehaviour. China is run by engineers, America by politards. Which would YOU trust more?
They're just doing this to stimulate purchases of private jets, which would fix our economy.
or cars
Americans and their fixation on terrorists...
Thanks to that our privacy is f*cked up big time. That and religious lunatics. It's sad... so sad...
good thing this is Darren's post and not Nilay's! He's a hawk on the comments and he doesn't allow politically charged comments!!
(just teasing lawyer guy!)
Yeah, it's bullies who are the biggest cowards and paranoiacs.
I completely agree. I am one of those people that are nervous. I get nervous at the dentist, I get nervous on a boat, I get nervous on a plane. But I don't thnk being such a sissy should cause me trouble at the airport - there are other ways to determine if someone is going to be a bad-ass.
Haven't they see the deodorant commercials??? The bad spies are the ones that drop sweat or shake under pressure. They undergo some kind of mental training to think about Ponyland, new-born puppies or something like that.
...and what's the deal with airline peanuts?
Ah, I thought they would see how overweight it puts you to find out if you have a bomb...
Or force you to make a Mii- if you can't you're obviously un-American.
And if you're not American, you have no business on a plane?
I said un-American meaning anti-American...
So if you don't like America, you have no business on a plane?
EEEGAAAAD!! Can you say paranoid...?!
I can say 'waste of taxpayer money'.
My guess is someone in the TSA wanted to play with a Wii balance board at work and didn't want to pay for it. "I have this great idea to spot terrorists using a Wii balance board. To study it, I'll need a Wii, a balance board, and 3 months of uninterrupted 'research' time alone in my office. Oh, and throw in a government credit card with no spending limit. There's no telling how many games....er...pieces of software I'll need to try out to see if this works."
Remember: if you question idiotic government spending, then the terrorists have already won.
"... maybe the TSA should just require a complete life history as a prerequisite to boarding."
Please, don't give them any ideas.
can sombody ban this guy
I'm afraid all I can do is down vote him. Reporting the post probably makes more sense, but it's less gratifying.
Why don't we just inject everybody with microchips. We'd know instantly who was safe and who was not. And they're trackable. Think of how many crimes could be solved. The only people against chipping people are the ones who have something to hide.
I so hope you were being sarcastic...
Wrong! I have nothing to hide, but don't dare come near me with a chip. This "if you don't have something to hide then you shouldn't mind if we stomp all over your rights" way of thinking just makes me cringe. Well if you aren't doing drugs then you shouldn't mind us watching you pee in a cup just to make sure. Why don't we let the police stop every car driving down the road today to check to see if any of them are stolen, if you're not driving a stolen car then you have nothing to hide and therefore shouldn't mind.
More fear mongerers. Stop watching the news, you will be less afraid. Times have changed, we are no longer the country that needs to make sure we the individuals have complete control. If you want progress, you are going to have to give up certain things. I don't want the government controlling everything, but there are certain things that need to be controlled and the only fair way to do so is through the government, voted for by the people.
You know it doesn't matter what you think Jordan. Your views are so at odds with the vast majority of Americans that's it's never going to happen. But go ahead and get yourself chipped if that makes you feel any better.
I've got a chip for you right here.
Seriously, was $30 million dollars put into research for such a idea of making lie detection through a Wii Balance Board? Oh my god. And apparently there's a recession at the moment, and yet the US government has enough money to blow $30 million on making it work with a video game peripheral.
Americans. =|
You can fool any lie detector just by puckering up your butthole for 10 to 15 seconds. This one is no different.
"... which has already ate away"
EATEN!
thank you. I thought I was alone in this world.
@The_Dude: Yup, its a given that grammar is going to continue it's steady decline in America. For example, the humble apostrophe will continue to rear it's head in all sorts of places where its not welcome, and vice-versa.
@ Zhuzhu,
I ag'ree.
Of course, if everyone is a shaking wreck when using it and only the trained terrorists can keep their cool, that makes it pretty easy to spot the terrorist, no?
Can we wear our shoes?
Are fingernail clippers ok?
I always wait til they start searching some 90 year old person, then I get in line & board planes hassle free?
i think the terrorists are the only ones that are gonan start bombing. we know americans tend to go on killing sprees when they get impatient.
Was "gonad' the word you were searching for? That's the source of the American brain.
Imagine you're a committed jihadist resigned to suicide. The last thing you're going to be is nervous. Though you would be crazy, so the machines might pick up on that.
I'm one of those guys who gets nervous around authority figures, regardless of my innocence. I fold up like a cheap suit put away wet... err, you get the idea.
Assuming I'm not the only one, I suspect this will be about as effective as having passengers put on a suit of armor before going through the metal detector. When it beeps, being asked "Do you have any metal objects in your pockets?" will be the expected drill. :P ("Wait what? Nooo... oh hang on, got a couple of coins here... okay let's try this again. *clank* *clank* *clank* *clank* ....)
Given my druthers, I say stop wasting time (and money) on this endeavor and keep working on the backscatter X-ray scanner instead. Not that I'm fond of being irradiated.
ObGrammarNazi: "which has already ate away" ftw.
If you can't even see the voting and reply buttons anymore, just circle around and wait for the alt text to show up.
so that's why they were always out of stock.
Oh god, in america? The TSA know's there's a weight limit on these things, right?
That's why the TSA people can't test it on themselves.
Jordan, I didn't reply because I was pretty sure you were being sarcastic, but now that I see you're not, I just think you're silly (not to use a stronger word).
Your approach certainly works - in the perfect world where the gov't is incorruptible, technology is 100.1% secure, there are no monetary interests at all, and everyone (or at least everyone working on the gov't and the project) is completely honest.
In reality, no. Just, no. Corruption, special interests, power madness, and sheer stupidity/ignorance will be everywhere (just like it is now). Not to mention that, since terrorists and criminals don't need to follow any law, they will easily bypass the whole thing, making it useless.
Also, I fail to see at all how is this related to progress.
The only thing you have to give up for progress is the comfortable lack of education a lot of people in the U.S.A. (and why lie, in the whole continent) has. By education I don't mean school knowledge, I mean life education, of the kind you should get at home (but a lot of people don't because of lazy parents).
And yes, people needs to be in control, even if we had a perfect no-evil government, because there is no guarantee at all that it'll still be that way in the future.
No, American government, you are not allowed to randomly perform lie detector tests on innocent citizens. Especially not innocent citizens of other countries traveling through yours. This is what humans on this planet call "illegal." A synonym could be "privacy infringement," or possibly just "stupid."
"other countries traveling through yours" -- Is that an example of plate tectonics in action?
"citizens of other countries traveling through yours."
Close.
I was thinking that "other countries' citizens traveling through yours" would be clearer phrasing, but then it occured to me that it suggested that two people could occupy the same space at the same time, which is just as bad as one country traveling through another.
Isn't English fun?
The TSA and the rest of the Department of Fostering Insecurity needs to be relegated to the dustbin of history along with other Fascist artifacts.
America is going through a period of unprecedented national stupidity and kneejerk paranoia, and our politicians are cowards for failing to stand up for reason and our rights. I'd hoped that young, intelligent Obama might bring some rationality back to this country, but he's a pandering jackass just like the rest of them. This is what "democracy" gets you--a constant dive towards the lowest common denominator, because that's what gets politicians re-elected.
You're really a sucker if you believe that the TSA and its ilk have in ANY way improved our lives.