With one hand inserted into a sensor that monitors physical
responses, the travelers used the other hand to answer questions on a
touch screen about their plans. A machine measured biometric
responses - blood pressure, pulse and sweat levels. The results were
analyzed by software. The objective was to identify out U.S.
officials who were carrying out make-believe terrorist missions.
The trial of the Israeli-developed system represents an effort by the
U.S. Transportation Security Administration to determine whether
technology can spot passengers who have "hostile intent." In effect,
the screening system attempts to mechanize Israel's vaunted
airport-security process by using algorithms, artificial-intelligence
software and polygraph principles.
Neither the TSA nor Suspect Detection Systems, the Israeli company,
will discuss the Knoxville trial, whose primary goal was to uncover
the designated bad guys, not to identify threats among real
travelers. They won't even say what questions were asked of
travelers, though the system is generally designed to measure
physical responses to hot-button questions like "Are you planning to
immigrate illegally?" or "Are you smuggling drugs."
The test is part of finding new ways to combat terrorists using
technology. Authorities are convinced that beyond hunting for weapons
and dangerous liquids brought on board airliners, the battle for
security lies in identifying dangerous passengers.
Israeli security is based on personal contact whereby the security
person enters into a dialogue with the traveller.
The method isn't intended to catch specific lies, says Shabtai
Shoval, chief executive of Suspect Detection Systems, the start-up
business behind the technology dubbed Cogito. "What we are looking
for are patterns of behavior that indicate something all terrorists
have: the fear of being caught," he says.
Security specialists say such technology can enhance, but not
replace, existing detection machines and procedures.
"You can't replicate the Israeli system exactly, but if you can
incorporate its philosophy, this technology can be one element of a
better solution," says Doron Bergerbest-Eilon, chief executive of
Asero Worldwide consulting firm and a former senior official in
Israel's security service.
To date, the TSA has more confidence in people than machines to
detect suspicious behavior. A small program now is using screening
officers to watch travelers for suspicious behavior. "It may be the
only thing I know of that favors the human solution instead of
technology," says TSA chief Kip Hawley.
The people-based program - called Screening Passengers by Observation
Technique, or SPOT - began undergoing tests at Boston's Logan Airport
after 9/11 and has expanded to about a dozen airports.
Trained teams watch travelers in security lines and elsewhere. They
look for obvious things like someone wearing a heavy coat on a hot
day, but also for subtle signs like vocal timbre, gestures and tiny
facial movements that indicate someone is trying to disguise an
emotion.
TSA officers observe passengers while consulting a list of more than
30 questionable behaviors, each of which has a numerical score. If
someone scores high enough, an officer approaches the person and asks
a few questions.
"All you know is there's an emotion being concealed. You have to find
out why the emotion is occurring," says Paul Ekman, a San Francisco
psychologist who pioneered work on facial expressions and is
informally advising the TSA. "You can find out very quickly."
More than 80 percent of those approached are quickly dismissed, he
says. The explanations for hiding emotions often are innocent: A
traveler might be stressed out from work, worried about missing a
flight or sad because a relative just died. If suspicions remain, the
traveler is interviewed at greater length by a screener with more
specialized training.
SPOT teams have identified about 100 people who were trying to
smuggle drugs, use fake IDs and commit other crimes, but not
terrorist acts.
Shoval, the Israeli entrepreneur, believes technology-based screening
is the key to rolling out behavior-recognition techniques in the U.S.
With experience in counter-terrorism service and the high-technology
industry, Shoval developed his Cogito device with leading former
Israeli intelligence officials, polygraph experts and
computer-science academics.
Here is the Cogito concept: A passenger enters the booth, swipes his
passport and responds in his choice of language to 15 to 20 questions
generated by factors such as the location, and personal attributes
like nationality, gender and age. The process takes as much as five
minutes, after which the passenger is either cleared or interviewed
further by a security officer.
At the heart of the system is proprietary software that draws on
Israel's extensive field experience with suicide bombers and
security-related interrogations. The system aims to test the
responses to words, in many languages, that trigger
psycho-physiological responses among people with terrorist intent.
The technology isn't geared toward detecting general nervousness:
Shoval says terrorists often are trained to be cool and to conceal
stress. Unlike a standard lie detector, the technology analyzes a
person's answers not only in relation to his other responses but also
those of a broader peer group determined by a range of security
considerations.
"We can recognize patterns for people with hostile agendas based on
research with Palestinians, Israelis, Americans and other
nationalities in Israel," Shoval says. "We haven't tried it with
Chinese or Iraqis yet."
The company's goal is to prove it can catch at least 90 percent of
potential saboteurs - a 10 percent false-negative rate - while
inconveniencing just 4 percent of innocent travelers.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported a novel Israeli technology
which aims at "identifying hostile intent. At airport security
checkpoints in Knoxville, Tenn., this summer, departing passengers
were asked to step behind a curtain, sit in a metallic oval booth and
don headphones.