You Could Now Be Interviewed and Stopped by a Digital Border Patrol Agent — Seriously
- Posted on August 7, 2012 at 8:55am by
Liz Klimas
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(Image: University of Arizona/BORDERS)
Travelers entering the United States from Mexico through Nogales, Ariz., could face a new U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent — a virtual one.
As part of the Trusted Traveler program the CBP’s electronic kiosk was created by a team at the University of Arizona to make border crossings more efficient, according to Scientific American. The kiosk will be capable of interviewing travelers and analyzing their responses, alerting human CBP officers if any exchanges seem suspect:
Anomaly detection is based on vocal characteristics—changes in factors such as rate, volume, pitch and intonation—that may be related to different emotional, arousal and cognitive states. An inflection in one’s voice may indicate uncertainty, or a pause might imply that an interviewee may have been devising a deceptive answer, Elkins says. The kiosk‘s speech recognition software monitors the content of an interviewee’s answers and can flag a response indicating when, for example, a person acknowledges having a criminal record.
According to Scientific American, the virtual CBP officer was developed to handle a backlog of Trusted Traveler applicants, a program that provides expedited travel between the two countries for those who qualify.
(Image: University of Arizona/BORDERS)
Aaron Elkins with the University of Arizona’s Management Information Systems department said the kiosk cannot say whether the person it’s interviewing is lying or has malicious intent, but serves to alert human officers to investigate further for themselves. Elkins spoke more on this point to the Daily Beast in July:
“We instruct the officers that nowhere is deception ever indicated,” [said Elkins.] “But it gives them some of that feedback, things they would have observed if they had done the interview themselves.”
[...]
“We know now how to measure these different behaviors. We can get a good baseline of that person and a sense of when there’s something affecting them,” Elkins says. “(But) there are a lot of explanations for it. That’s why I don’t say ‘deception detection’ or ‘lie detection,’ because that is a very presumptuous thing to say.”
Fox News Latino reports the concerns of some privacy advocates regarding the technology:
“A lot of this is taking technology that is coming right out of research and implementing IT right on the ground,” said Lillie Coney, the associate director of The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a Washington D.C.-based a public interest research center focusing on civil liberties and public privacy issues. “If we implement programs like this it becomes more likely that travelers from our country will be subjected to this when they travel abroad.”
The avatar kiosks have the potential to draw the same amount of criticism that the Department of Homeland Security’s Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) program has. The FAST program measures travelers’ pulse rate, skin temperature, breathing, facial expression, body movement, pupil dilation and other physiological and behavioral factors to determine their security risk.
“Anytime you try to automate a process around security, the major question is ‘is this an appropriate use of technology?’” Coney said.
The avatar kiosk in Nogales is currently in its pilot phase, which includes more than 1,000 interviews to be conducted with travelers.
Scientific American reports the university researchers developing and testing the kiosk for CBP said they eventually would like to add passport scanning capabilities or perhaps other sensors, such as eye trackers or infrared cameras.
(H/T: Popular Science)
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abunchofbullshit
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 1:27pmwonder what an M4 will do to these electronics!
Report Post »grams09
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 1:20pmAren’t those the kiosks Obama keeps talking about that are taking away all the jobs?
Report Post »grams09
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 1:18pmDon’t you get the impression that this administration wants to help the drug cartel? I guess a steady flow of drugs keeps the masses in check.
Report Post »voting-for-romney
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 1:13pmUh, there is a backlog with all these people out of work looking for jobs? Your kidding right?
How hard could it be to get a job with the passport office?
But we can find the money to fund these idiotic toys that will read the reactions on your face based on what questions? You mean the essay question, that the camera on your student desk in college, will gauge your retina reaction while you write the answer to the test, or the side by side window monitor like the old “brady bunch” preview screens that gauge political speeches, or even advertisements for products?
Oh, nothing to worry about this is just for “passport back logs”? No need to worry about what kinds of questions people will think of, and how to manipulate the results? Go back to sleep, people, more regulations means guaranteed raises, and lower product prices and the kind of prosperity that major city mayors are telling us all about?
Report Post »drphil69
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 12:41pmGee, now why would anyone be uncomfortable “speaking with” a digital “agent?”
My guess is the red lights will be flashing often. Of course, mexican citizens will be allowed to pass with no questions asked… otherwise it would be RACIST…
Report Post »Zombee
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 10:14amOnly US Citizens will be subjected to this violation of our civil liberties. In Oba-mao’s regime, illegals aliens will probably be totally exempted from this intrusion into their lives. WAKE UP AMERICA! SOMETHING IS WRONG HERE!
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on August 8, 2012 at 12:28pmTypical NAZI-creeping into the mainstreem untill it’s too-late!! They-the-gubment know who you are and where you are at all moments of your life from birth-to-death!!…and what your dooing at every microseccond!! They-the-Gubment can and will turn-ON your smartfone, I-pad, tablet, reg-cell and it will look as if it;s still 100%-OFF!! They will and are watching/listening to Your GPS-SIGNALS from every “fone” device your have. The only “laws” they pass are to spy and incrimminate YOU-the-honest leagal CITIZEN!! The Hairy-less-Reid-desk in sennate has hundreds of conserative bills which you-know will NEVER leave-it to even get discussed on sennate-floor. This is why the “house” looks-so-good “passing them for the people” ….”Oh–Lookie how many WE passed this week and the mean-ol Senate/ried blocks them all!” WETHEPEOPLE spend billions of tax$$ to get shitz-on by both houses, theWH, and the Fed-Court-System, and E.WithHolder!!
Report Post »JohnLarson
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 10:03amAre you people seriously complaining about a police state on the border?
You’ve all been begging for one for more than 40 years…
Report Post »RandomMan
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 11:05amHow many terrorist do you think this computer can chase down and arrest?
Report Post »JohnLarson
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 11:34amIt gives us intelligence on who to pursue…
I know you’re a con and anti-intelligence, but it’s underrated.
Report Post »www.TopTheNews.com
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 9:25amLet’s focus on the law abiding citizens and not do anything about the criminals.
A lesson in government stupidity.
Report Post »NCgal
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 9:21amYes, but do you have to press “1” for Spanish or “2” for Arabic?
Report Post »oldguy49
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 9:41amno you have to press 1 for english……………
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 9:11amHere we go with another level of uttermost stupididty.
Report Post »kaydeebeau
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 10:18amAt least as effective as the traffic cops who are 500 feet away from their motorcycles holding a radar gun and waving speeders over. I just go faster since I know they can’t get back on the bike soon enough to catch me. Nor will they be able to put down the gun fast enough to capture my tag number. I usually wave as I zoom by….
Report Post »historyguy48
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 9:10amComrade, you’re missing the point. All they must do is couple this technology with the new and improved facial recognition technology, throw in the new object scanning technology, that allows them to look through objects, such as your car, home, etc. cross file this with the electronic emissions technology and run that through the potential criminal action technology, and if you get through all of that, you will now know that you are safe to allow into the US.
Report Post »Or, they can also use this technology to see if you are deviating from your normal actions and may have become a threat, in which case they can easily be authorized, under our current laws, to detain you indefinitely, without legal counsel or trial, until they decide to either charge you with a crime or release you.
If you think I am joking, well guess what, all of the above technology, along with the law, already exists and is being put into play as I write this.
Isn’t living in a Totalitarian State fun! Don’t you wish everyone did? Well, your wish will be granted because this technology will be in worldwide use in the very near future.
I wonder why they haven’t come after the guns? Why would they, we are already in checkmate!
RandomMan
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 9:05amWow what an awesome display of monitary waste.
Report Post »randy
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 9:00amAnd what happens when an illegal pulls the power cord and kills one of these DIGITAL BORDER PATROL AGENT?
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 9:14amLoL….scary times. Have you read Brad Thor’s latest book? Here lies the plot!
Report Post »Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
Posted on August 7, 2012 at 1:06pm@Grandma,
Just bought it in the airport yesterday. Thor is awesome and that book is just plain creepy. Maybe, someday people will wake up to what’s happening around us. There are 300 Million of us if we could ever get our crap together…sigh.
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