Airports Could Get Mind-Reading Scanners

WeCU Technologies is building a mind-reading scanner that can tell if a given traveler is a potential danger - without
the subject's knowledge. WeCU Technologies (pronounced "we see you") is
creating a system that would essentially turn the public spaces in
airports into vast screening grounds:.

"The system ... projects images onto airport screens, such as
symbols associated with a certain terrorist group or some other image
only a would-be terrorist would recognize, company CEO Ehud Givon said.

"The logic is that people can't help reacting, even if only subtly,
to familiar images that suddenly appear in unfamiliar places. If you
strolled through an airport and saw a picture of your mother, Givon
explained, you couldn't help but respond.

"The reaction could be a darting of the eyes, an increased
heartbeat, a nervous twitch or faster breathing, he said. The WeCU
system would use humans to do some of the observing but would rely
mostly on hidden cameras or covert biometric sensors that can detect a slight rise in body temperature and heart rate," as reported in Raw Story.

Science fiction writers have been playing with the idea of
mind-reading machines for a long time. For example, you may recall the Veridicator from H. Beam Piper's 1962 novel Little Fuzzy:

"There was a bright conical helmet on his head, and electrodes had
been clamped to various portions of his anatomy. On the wall behind him
was a circular screen which ought to have been a calm turquoise blue,
but which was flickering from dark blue through violet to mauve. That
was simple nervous tension and guilt and anger at the humiliation of
being subjected to veridicated interrogation. "

More recently, the Farscape science fiction series introduced the Aurora Chair,
which was designed to extract information more efficiently than
conventional interrogation methods. "The chair" is employed throughout
the Peacekeeper military is believed one of the most effective means of
gaining information from unwilling subjects. The chair can painfully
sort through its subject's memories, pushing farther and harder
depending on the setting. It is designed to sort through and uncover
the mind's "layers".

Hopefully, the TSA won't start sponsoring research into Aurora Chair technology...