Project Hostile Intent – the real ‘Minority Report’

Real life 'Pre-Crime'

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The Department of Homeland Security has announced the development of futuristic sounding technology with a bizarre “Minority Report” twist. The criminals they’re looking for haven’t committed a crime yet. The program called Project Hostile Intent is part of the Human Factors Division of the DHS.

DHS says that they need a way to detect possible “future” terrorists without a criminal past and with no known ties to terrorist organizations and therefore do not appear in any government databases. The technology will use advanced biometric technology in an attempt to “read minds” of people in public places, like airports.

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If a computer determines that you are thinking about committing a terrorist act, either imminently, or at some point during your stay in the US, then you will be picked up by security officers for an interview. What is especially creepy about this upcoming program is that since it is specifically targeting people with no known terrorists ties—the only evidence is the “opinion” of a invariably flawed computer program.

The potential for abuse is staggering. Imagine that you get tagged by the computer, and the next thing you know you’re dragged off and treated like you were about to blow up an airplane. The only evidence against you would be that a computer deemed that you had some sort of undefined “hostile intent”. The fact that you did nothing wrong wouldn’t stop you from being detained, interrogated, and harassed. Missing your flight home will be the least of your worries! Some people are becoming more frightened by the governments secretive and vague “war on terror” than they are of terrorist attacks.

Source

Project Hostile Intent is an ongoing project of the United States Department of Homeland Security, Human Factors Division. It has been renamed to Future Attribute Screening Technology. This project comes under the Social and Behavioral Research (SBR) Program,one of the three broad program areas within the Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that "sponsors research to inform, develop, and test tools and methodologies to assess terrorist threats, understand terrorism, and improve national security"

Source

Last year, New Scientist revealed that the US Department of Homeland Security is developing a system designed to detect "hostile thoughts" in people walking through border posts, airports and public places. The DHS says recent tests prove it works.

Project Hostile Intent as it was called aimed to help security staff choose who to pull over for a gently probing interview - or more.

Commentators slated the idea that sensors could spot people up to no good from their pulse rate, breathing, skin temperature, or fleeting facial expressions. One likened it to the "pre-crime" units that predict criminal behaviour in the movie Minority Report.

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However, last week, the DHS science unit gave an update on the project, now dubbed the less-hostile-sounding Future Attribute Screening Technologies (FAST) programme. And, if DHS claims are to be believed, the research appears to be getting somewhere.

At an equestrian centre in Maryland, 140 paid volunteers walked through a pair of trailers kitted out with a battery of FAST sensors, including cameras, infrared heat sensors and an eyesafe laser radar, called a Bio-Lidar, that measures pulse and breathing rate from a distance.

Some subjects were told to act shifty, be evasive, deceptive and hostile. And many were detected. "We're still very early on in this research, but it is looking very promising," says DHS science spokesman John Verrico. "We are running at about 78% accuracy on mal-intent detection, and 80% on deception."

Source

(DHS) Privacy Impact Assessment for the Experimental Testing of Project Hostile Intent Technology - www.dhs.gov...

Existing thread about this topic (here) but it didn't get as much attention as i would have thought. So i decided to bring it back to the fore.

So, what are your opinions?

Personally i think its original name of 'Project Hostile Intent' was very accurate indeed. No wonder they changed its name, calling it that would be too blatant on their part. All the intent to be hostile is on their part in my opinion. The danger of false positives is too big to be ignored.

Thanks.

[edit on 05/08/09 by LiveForever8]

Might as well just stop flying.

How many airports are full of calm happy sedate people?


Shyeah.....

They will arrest every traveller in LaGuardia the day before Christmas.

I didn't like Minority Report the movie. I like this even less.

This is our future - being judged according to actions we haven't acted out yet. Possibly helpful on some fronts, and still scary, nonetheless.

Is this our generations hangup? During McCarthyism era, we saw communists everywhere. In the age of terrorists', will we see terrorism and terrorists everywhere we look?

I think we're already there.

Just imagine having a REALLY good lawyer with you who knows the privacy laws.

Should I post that I don't like this idea? Or will that mean a computer will know my intent and add me to the no fly list. Oh well I've been out of country for a long time now, guess I'm not going back anytime soon.

If this technology was to ever get somebody "questioned" that person needs to say one simple thing.

Prove It.

I would really like for them to try to argue what some computer program says I was thinking, is what I was actually thinking. I see this as a waste of tax dollars.

I don't think I have ever read something as crazy in my life!

Could the DHS tell me exactly how a computer can tell someone is a terrorist?!?!

How on earth could a computer determine that someone was "thinking about committing a terrorist act"?

Human beings find it hard to recognise terrorists nevermind computers!

Commentators slated the idea that sensors could spot people up to no good from their pulse rate, breathing, skin temperature, or fleeting facial expressions. One likened it to the "pre-crime" units that predict criminal behaviour in the movie Minority Report.

Completely ridiculous, did the DHS fail to realise that things like pulse rate, breathing, skin temperature etc can all be influenced by a massive number of things?

Since when did having warm skin indicate that I was about to destroy a 747?

Imagine a family of four, husband & wife along with two young screaming kids in a warm airport inside a foreign country who really just want to go home so they start throwing tantrums and people are looking at you, you realise your about to miss your flight...

That would make your breathing, skin temperature and pulse rate increase!

It wouldn't mean you was a terrorist!

Here's a video I think would contribute more to this subject.



www.youtube.com...

[edit on 5-3-2010 by jonathan0220]

Interesting.. The dates from the sources posted was 2008.

Wonder how far along these programs are currently, if not already in implementation.

Be wary, very wary..

reply to post by LiveForever8


So if the people are conditioned that what they are doing is normal, expected and right, then they would not show any deviations on the monitors?

Aren't the people they claim that they are looking for conditioned to believe just that?

So they must not be looking at them, so they must be looking at us. Now the question is why?

Why has our government turned against us?

So, what are your opinions?

This makes the future look VERY grim.

We need to do something before it's to late.


I really need to read 1984 again...

[edit on 6-3-2010 by Phlynx]

reply to post by Phlynx


Refuse to spend you money where these devices are being used against you.

Speak with your wallet.

"people who give away freedom for security deserve neither"

what generation of sissies is this, that EVERYONE is so scared of everything?

the ozone, the air, global warming, terrorism, the land, carcinogens, china, india, outsourcing jobs, islam etc etc etc...

and of course, people blindly accept that all of this is true....we are in for a huge party in the near future...and everyone's invited.
even if you dont want to attend..

So will this be able to tell between a possible terrorist and a manic depressive? Schizophrenic? PMS?

Originally posted by djvexd
So will this be able to tell between a possible terrorist and a manic depressive? Schizophrenic? PMS?

Or just someone who's having a bad day, going through a rough patch (losing your job/splitting with your partner/death of a loved one etc, etc) & is full of agression/pent-up rage or whatever.

Absolutely crazy that they'd be allowed to haul you off for interrogation based on such a flawed premise!

man I know i would get flagged up everytime.

im constantly thinking how i would shove my foot up someones ***

some people really annoy me, then all these random thoughts of hurting them go though my head..

in the testing people where told to act angry suspicuous etc.

then can you not just act calm. and collected. going though these

Originally posted by MR BOB
in the testing people where told to act angry suspicuous etc.

then can you not just act calm. and collected. going though these

Or simply take some Diazepam beforehand to calm you down!

The last time I flew I was annoyed darn near every minute. From the relentless pawing through your bags and pat downs to the mindless bureaucracy everywhere, coupled with a chronic pain condition I am sure my pulse and everything else was up and I was making all sorts of facial expressions.

The really scary part is that they say with volunteers "acting shifty" they have a 80% success rate, which to me means it has a zero success rate in actually distinguishing real "harmful intent" from someone pretending to have it (or even just having a bad day). They don't even mention what the false positive rate is for those not trying to act strange. And of course, the body responds very differently when there is no negative outcomes attached to being identified (regardless of whether you are innocent or not). And what happens if you fail their little test? My internal monologue would be going crazy! What if I fail? What if they *think* something is off? Did I answer that question right? What if I'm sweating! What will they do to me if I fail?! = terrorist! If the worst is they tear apart my luggage and find nothing, ok. But what else? More 1000's of names placed on the no fly list so it is even more useless and we aren't allowed to move freely? Candidate for extra surveillance in your regular life? Charged with a crime??

A no good, very bad thing.