Big Brother Really Is Watching (Robert L. Mitchell)

  Robert L. Mitchell -- Computerworld

  -- The year is 2012.

  As soon as you walk into the airport, the machines are watching. Are you a tourist -- or a terrorist posing as one?

  As you answer a few questions at the security checkpoint, the systems begin sizing you up. An array of sensors -- video, audio, laser, infrared -- feeds a stream of real-time data about you to a computer that uses specially developed algorithms to spot suspicious people.

  The system interprets your gestures and facial expressions, analyzes your voice and virtually probes your body to determine your temperature, heart rate, respiration rate and other physiological characteristics -- all in an effort to determine whether you are trying to deceive.

  Fail the test, and you'll be pulled aside for a more aggressive interrogation and searches.

  That scenario may sound like science fiction, but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is deadly serous about making it a reality.

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