Future Attribute Screening Technology
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Wii balance board could be used in fruitless airport security effort
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]
Balance Board used in experimental airport screening study
The US has invested a healthy amount of money into combating the terrorist threat -- certainly a bit more than $100. According to a CNN report, one of a few experimental methods being used to identify suspicious dudes at the airport uses Nintendo's Wii Balance Board (sans Wii Fit Plus).Scientists part of the Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) program have taken the Wii Fit peripheral and adjusted it to measure how a person shifts their weight. Scientists hope to find "a level of fidgeting that would suggest the need for secondary screening." We're just glad we're not a part of the study, because every time we step on a Balance Board, we can't help but act like we're playing that awesome hula hoop minigame. That's a suspicious amount of fidgeting.[Via Kotaku]
