'Mind-reading' scanner tested in US

A “mind-reading” security scanner which screens the person, rather than their bags, is being tested in the US, it emerged today.

The Malintent system searches the body for non-verbal cues that predict whether the person intends to cause any harm to fellow passengers.

It uses a series of sensors and scans to detect temperature, heart rate and respiration as passengers walk through an archway – and could also cut airport queues.

The system raises serious privacy concerns as it catalogues a person’s vital signs for non-medical reasons and could be seen as invasive.

It is the brainchild of the Human Factors division in Homeland Security’s directorate for science and technology and is part of a mobile laboratory called Future Attribute Screening Technology (Fast).

Bob Burns, Malintent’s project leader, told Fox News: “If you focus on looking at the person, you don’t have to worry about detecting the device itself.”

He added the scanner was unbiased and non-judgmental.

“It does not predict who you are and make a judgment; it only provides an assessment in situations,” he said.

“It analyses you against baseline stats when you walk in the door. It measures reactions and variations when you approach and go through the portal.”

Mr Burns also addressed the privacy concerns and said that once the person passed through the Fast portal, the records were “dumped”.

“The information is not maintained – it doesn’t track who you are,” he said.

The team will also be adding equipment that reads body movements, called “illustrative and emblem cues” because people “move in reaction to what they are thinking, more or less based on the context of the situation”, Mr Burns said.

Fast may also incorporate biological, radiological and explosive detection, but for now the primary focus is on identifying and isolating potential human threats.

The system is also designed to be able to distinguish between a rushed, stressed and sweaty passenger, and a terrorist.

The experimental system was tested on 144 people in Maryland last week and exact results have not been released.

But Jay Cohen, undersecretary for science and technology administration, told Fox News the experiment was a “home run”.

While the 144 test subjects thought they were passing through an entrance way, they were actually being screened as they passed through a series of sensors.

The Department of Homeland Security also selected a group of 23 subjects who were each given a “disruptive device” to carry through the portal. Unlike the others, they were conscious they were on a mission.

A spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which controls US airport security, said the system was “in no way” associated with the TSA and that there were “no plans to deploy these experimental programmes to US airports at this time”.

Later, John Verrico, of Homeland Security’s science and technology department, said the mobile scanner was designed for use in a wide variety of scenarios, including at sporting events, major concerts and airports.

But he stressed that the system was still in the “validation of concept” stage, 14 months into a five-year project.

“We’re trying to determine what we can read with the sensors and whether or not what we’re reading does indicate what we think it does,” he said.