What on earth has a balance board to do with airport screening? A lot, as a latest development shows. The Nintendo Wii balance board has come into use, to identify fidgety, nervous passengers who may actually be carrying explosives or illegal items on their bodies.
An astronomous $20 million Homeland Security-funded project called Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST). Using sensors to detect the heart rate, breathing, shifty eyes, body eyes and fidgeting of passengers can help the airport officials figure out which of them has something to hide or harmful, feel researchers. Signs of stress are also used to profile people’s faces. Some sensors can track eye movement, pupil size, and blinking.
How does the Wii Balance Board help here? It was modified to show how someone’s weight shifts. It may not be a perfect screening equipment. But variations in human behavior and standing still could be starter points with the board.
Wii accessories also find use in medical applications. Another project is using Wii remote to provide home CPR training. CNN has said that civil liberties advocates have complained about Homeland Security’s goals as an invasion of privacy.
Experts from outside feel the approach is rather fuzzy too, just like concerns have been raised over lie detector tests before.
Field testing of the overall screening system is slated for 2011.
