New Wii Fit app: screening for terrorists

Wow.

The technology is being developed by the Homeland Security department (DHS) and if approved could be used to spot potentially threatening people at airports, sports games, and border crossing areas.

The $20 million trial program called Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) combines an eye-tracking device that gauges abnormal pupil sizes; a laser radar that reads the person’s heart and respiration rate; and a thermal camera that can pick up changes in skin’s temperature, all while the person stands on a Nintendo Wii Fit balance board.

The data collected during such a screening is fed into an algorithm, which creates an analysis for security personnel to examine. The Wii Fit balance board first appealed to the scientists developing the technology because it is an off-the-shelf product that is easily adaptable to a security setting.

Though she may indeed fit the profile of a "potentially threatening person," I wonder what the FAST scan would make of a lady of a certain age in the midst of a hot flash.

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