Wii Balance Board Used in Security Checks
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Nintendo, Wii, Balance, Board, Homeland | Themes: Software, Digital Entertainment
Homeland Security researchers have incorporated the Wii Balance Board into its "fidgeting" test.
Department of Homeland Security officials are reporting that researchers are now looking for new ways to analyze airplane passengers at security checkpoints. The project, funded by Homeland Security, takes the focus off explosive shoes and suspicious tweezers and instead determines a passenger's threat level by way of natural physiological signals. These signals include fidgeting, heart rate, eye movement, body temperature, and breathing.
"There's been a large field of research that ties your physical reactions to your mental state, your emotional state," said project manager Robert Burns. "We're looking for those signals that your body gives off naturally." He also added that the technology will be able to pick up on cues that may not be observed by a human, thus providing a handy tool that will enable security to quickly determine the next course of action.
In addition to the tests related to heart rate, body temperature, and other signs, CNN reports that researchers created an improvised fidgeting monitor by incorporating Nintendo's Wii Balance Board. The Balance Board, once hooked up to the monitor, will display a passenger's shift in weight: typically, in Wii games such as Wii Fit, an icon appears in the center, and will move from side to side, front to back accordingly. The researchers are now trying to determine if there is a level of fidgeting that will send suspicious to a secondary screening.
"We're looking at signals you give off naturally," Burns said. "We're not asking for any personal information. We're not asking anything about you." He said that although the project is headed in the right direction, it still has a long way to go before any kind of real-world implementation. Currently the project is projected to be ready for field testing in 2011. Perhaps by then, the researchers will have incorporated Project Natal and Sony's naughty looking Sphere motion controller. Be sure to check out CNN's report in regards to the other interesting tests.
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Hopefully they didn't install that firmware update. Our whole Department of Homeland Security will be bricked.
We have some real winners in charge, yup, real winners.
I flew for the very first time this August, and I was fidgety and sweaty and nervous as all hell. Then again, I got flagged anyway.
Great, the last thing I wanted to see here was Nintendo getting some more free press.
That thing would make people nervous. Nervous people are suspicious. What the hell were they thinking!?!?
great so if i "fidget" i will get pulled into some room where a bunch of big sadistic security dudes will rape me up the butt with a baton ???
just great man !!!!
Anyway, I think that the HS is getting a bit paranoid. If they could use the technology to catch the big fishes than I'm ok with it, but it's not, it's catching all the small fishes..
Easy to defeat. Serial bank robbers routinely take sedatives before a heist to avert jumpiness. I would not be surprised if the 911 hijackers had done the same, not to fool security back then but to maintain control.
Nintendo police, get on the Wii Fit Board!
You can't run a 'stress' test on someone in a stressful situation.
It's not only if you have something to hide you fidget. If you're out of shape you'll fidget. Are you sure this isn't because the customs guys got caught playing wii on the job and grabbed at any excuse?
I've never fidgeted going through security. Besides, I think this process is a bit more sophisticated than looking for bored or nervous fliers.
As it is, they randomly pull people in for searches, anything better than random can be an improvement.
maybe homeland security should see if they can tell the government to pull all troops in the middle east and leave them alone?
That solve all problems. I promise.
This is an excuse to search everyone.
great so if i "fidget" i will get pulled into some room where a bunch of big sadistic security dudes will rape me up the butt with a baton ???just great man !!!!
Which one is the line for that?
lol... way to go tards. So no other way to scan even instantly and visually the shoe area or was it their excuse for Wii expenses? lol wtf is this about
The real problem is that DHS is turning itself into an unauthorized police force, outfitting their minimum-wage, generally uneducated, poorly trained staff with blue shirts and sew-on badges even though they arent officers of any kind. The REAL police are always there, watching. After 9/11 3 things happened that made us more secure.
1: Arming the Flight Crew
2: Stronger Doors to cockpit
3: Americans don't think it's ransom they want
Nothing else needed to be done. A guy got beat to death recently for just SAYING he wanted to blow up a plane. A sad mob reaction to some particularly poorly chosen words, but the by allowing the TSA to turn airports into harrassment centers they have let the terrorists win by making us scared into giving up our own freedom in the name of (false) security. I would rather see dead Americans than cowed and fearful Americans.
PS: I'm in Afghanistan currently, and the Brits wont even let us fly from combat base to base with a knife in our bags...but we can keep our guns and ammo if we promise not to load them...
I watched 6 commandos take forever trying to get through a metal detector, because their missions got cut short and they still had ordinance on them. They kept trying to walk through, and it would beep, and then he'd fish around for a minute and then produce another grenade, knife, or ammo magazine, and hand it to this dude and try again. It would be funny if it wasn't so damn sad.
This is an excuse to search everyone.
Almost. All males pass on through. All busty women...stand on balance board.....
*Look at them pineaples jiggle* Mam, you are too fidgetty can you step over here....I need to pat you down.
If this is implemented everybody with an anxiety of flying or ADAHD will be searched. ‘Would everybody who’s really nervous about flying and everybody with absolutely no attention span please step into this small interrogation room’… That’ll work out really well.
Sony's "naughty" looking Sphere motion controller.
Lol
There is something to observing people behavior, the Israelis have been screening passengers for years this way, and have been very successful. While they are good at this, I'm not sure that a computer program will ever be as good at spotting problems as well trained humans.
I can't wait to hear the overweight sigh the next time I travel...
There is something to observing people behavior, the Israelis have been screening passengers for years this way, and have been very successful. While they are good at this, I'm not sure that a computer program will ever be as good at spotting problems as well trained humans.
Yeah but the Israelis dont detail the fidgeting 80 year old jewish lady for questioning. They detain the 18-34 year old fidgeting Arab.
Like it or not profiling works.
One big problem here is that the Wii Balance Board is very finicky. Sure, if you use it every day you learn its quirks, but if you don't you're lucky if you can calibrate it on the first try. Merely turning your head will make the Wii tell you to stop fidgeting.
Score one for the terrorists, I guess.
Aren't the people who partake in criminal activities on the national level, usually accustomed or even well trained to maintain themselves at all times?
Just a thought,
Mike
By this I mean that it will, like other things such as DRM only provide the illusion of safety, accompanied by the discomfort of yet another tedious process we as average consumers have to endure, while it doesn't actually improve the situation. (since those who are hellbent on committing these vile acts will do so and successfully keep doing so, regardless?)