Air passengers could be tagged

Electronically tagging passengers at airports could help the fight against terrorism, scientists have said.

Dr Paul Brennan, an electrical engineer, is leading the tagging project, known as Optag.

He said: "The basic idea is that airports could be fitted with a network of combined panoramic cameras and RFID (radio frequency ID) tag readers, which would monitor the movements of people around the various terminal buildings."

The plan, he said, would be for each passenger to be issued with a tag at check-in.

He said: "In our system, the location can be detected to an accuracy of 1m, and video and tag data could be merged to give a powerful surveillance capability."

news.bbc.co.uk...

Well, I think that this is a joke, not only does the RFID track youm but it also transmits a video of what you are up to!

Personally I think that big brother is going mad! When you are at the toilet in the airport or plane, you would want some privacy, but this chip has the potential to show the security guards you doing your business This just drives me mad
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added 'ex' tags

[edit on 18-10-2006 by masqua]

Originally posted by speight89
Well, I think that this is a joke, not only does the RFID track youm but it also transmits a video of what you are up to!

Personally I think that big brother is going mad! When you are at the toilet in the airport or plane, you would want some privacy, but this chip has the potential to show the security guards you doing your business

This just drives me mad
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added 'ex' tags

I don't think the tag has any video capability. I think he was referring to the correlation of the location information transmitted by the tag and the airport's video system.

If this system was fully developed I could see some benefits that are not mentioned here. How about your luggage looking for you instead of the other way around? What about being able to obtain about the status of your flight by just walking up to a scanner?

As soon as you mention RFID some people automatically start screaming about privacy issues, without even thinking of the possible benefits a system like this could offer.

like anything, it has advantages, and disadvantages, and read the last paragraph of the quote, it says that vieo images can be produced

Originally posted by speight89
like anything, it has advantages, and disadvantages, and read the last paragraph of the quote, it says that vieo images can be produced

I did read the last paragraph. Read this paragraph.

He said: "The basic idea is that airports could be fitted with a network of combined panoramic cameras and RFID (radio frequency ID) tag readers, which would monitor the movements of people around the various terminal buildings."

Combined cameras and the tags. Nothing there about a camera in the tag.