Rob's picks:
www.google.com
"best search engine I've encountered powers the Yahoo
search engine. .very little advertising can find everything and
anything I'm looking for very cool"
www.theonion.com
"the best source for the latest news, kind of.. very profes
sional yet humorous website that is dedicated to making fun of
just about everything"
Tech companies see new market for detection
by Guy' Cugliotta
The Washington Post
One machine can detect stress by
reading flickering cvc movement'
Another uses X-rays to conduct vir
tual strip-scarche that can spot a ra
zor blade taped to a person's inner
thigh. A third videotapes laces in a
crowded room and matches them to
known terrorists.
For several wars, cutting-edge
identification and detection technolo
gies have helped specialists in the
battle against terrorism, hut the Sept.
I I attacks on the Pentagon and the
World Trade Center could transforni
these once exotic gadgets into every
day tools of airport safety.
In Chicago, President Bush de
scribed a plan to invest $3 billion to
enhance aviation security, outlining.
measures ranging from reinforcing
aircraft cockpit doors to stationing
National Guard members at airport
inspection stations
He also promised to "look at all
kinds of technologies, - a commit
ment that could transform today's
metal detectors and passport checks
into old-world curiosities.
"I think this technology was start
ing to become a mainstream solution,
and it now is mainstream," said Rill
Willis, chief technological officer of
Iridian Technologies Inc., the
Moorestown, N.J., maker of a device
that verifies identity by imaging the
iris of a person's eye. "People now
believe strongly that they want to
identify and verify who someone is."
Airport security seeks to accom
plish two tasks: identifying potential
hijackers or troublemakers, and find
ing and confiscating explosives or
weapons before they get on a plane.
Both objectives have stirred contro
versy from privacy advocates.
Body Search, a device that uses X
rays to penetrate clothing and scan
the contours of a person's body, drew
outrage a few years ago for its abil
ity to "undress" passengers. Today
things have changed: "The public
will have less objection if the threat
level is justified," said Ralph
Sheridan, president and CEO of
American Science and Engineering,
the Billerica, Mass., company that
makes Body Search. "I get lots of
questions from airline personnel
about 'when can this be used to make
me feel more secure?'" It's currently
used by the U.S. Customs Service in
ebsite insight
he Beacon's editors came up with some
of their favorite sites to browse from
the fun to the helpful to the down right
Kid, here's where they've been surfin'.
Got a fave site of your own? Send an
e-mail to behrcolls@aol.com,
including your full name, the site's URL,
and a tew sentences on why it's worth
checking out.
live airports to search people tot
Privacy concerns have also ham
pered deployment of devices that
match an iris, handprint, fingerprint
or face to a database of known of
fenders. techniques known as bio
metrics because they measure parts
of a person's body to create a com
puter signature unique to that person.
Earlier this year. Tampa police
were criticized for "Airveillance - of
the citizenry when they installed fa
cial recognition video cameras from
Visionics Corp. of New Jersey to
match pedestrians in an entertain
ment district against mug shots of
known offenders.
"You match the faces against a list
of people for whom there arc arrest
warrants." said security consultant
Mark Rasch. "Then you add those
'engaged in criminal activity,' then
'suspected terrorists and their asso
ciates.' Once you've created a data
base, you can use it for anything."
It is not yet clear whether fear of
terrorism will overcome Americans'
natural antipathy to government pry
ing, but the technologies exist and
have been proven reliable.
At the San Francisco airport,
would-he employees have their fin
gerprints digitized in a device devel
oped by Identix Inc. of Los Gatos,
Airplane Security Technology
Airports are beginning to employ advanced technologies to foil terrorism and trafficking
Two devices being used are:
X-ray searches
Advanced X-ray scanners are being used at arrival areas in
some major airports in place of body searches. The scanners
read scattered X-rays that bounce back from their subjects. They
pick up various densities of
materials including plastic
and powders and produce
much clearer images than
traditional X-rays
Phere a whirling, bladed metal hemisphere created by a team
of Fort Worth engineers lasted a mere 37 seconds in the
quarterfinal round of the super heavyweight Battleßots competition
currently being aired on Comedy Central.
At a west Fort Worth watching party last month, its creators
gasped as television monitors replayed the horror. Toro, shown
above, roared toward Phere, reached under its spun-steel shell
with a pneumatic arm, then, in one frightening motion, flung the
324-pound bot three feet in the air.
Phere landed upside-down like a defenseless tortoise.
Paige's picks:
www.the-mobile.net
"features ringtones for mobile phones just about any song you can
think of for your Nokia 5100 phone all you need is your phone's email
address. .Motorola and Ericsson capabilities are being developed"
www.ipartyhard.com
"collaboration of websites having to do with, well, partying
great site for aspiring bartenders"
Becky's picks:
www.halloween.com
—"cool site for the Halloween season complete with links to
vampire enthusiasts, werewolf information, and links to scary stories
and Halloween legends"
www.mla.org
"the MLA Bibliography website is packed with bibliographies for
full-length articles, books, you name it, on any subject you could
dream of free access is provided through the Penn State L lAS
system, under Full Text Databases an excellent way to begin that
research project or thesis"
Calif., and checked against FBI da
tabases k) see if they are wanted for
crimes. Once they are hired, the air-
port controls employees' access to
secure areas with a liandprint Hornet-
ric system de\ eloped by Reinition
Systems Inc.. a Campbell, Calif.-
based subsidiary of Ingersoll-Rand.
t biometrics to search for (Cr-
rorists among incoming passengers
could ultimately prove crucial to
keeping them out of the country or
identifying them. suggested Don
Hamilton, deputy Wreck)r of the Na
tional Memorial Institute for the Pre
vention of Terrorism, because they
marry an individual to a document
in a way that cannot he altered.
"The hard part is getting the hio
metric identifier into the system in
the first place, - Hamilton said. Iris
scanning and handprints are tremen
dously reliable, he pointed out, hut
impossihle to use because there is no
electronic file of evildoers that con
tains these biometrics.
Fingerprints have a decided advan
tage for domestic criminals because
the FBI has "a ready-made had guy
database," said lana Schnitzer,
'dent x director of public sector sales.
"They've got the portrait gallery.''
But facial recognition appears to
inspire the most interest because it
can scan a person's lace in an airline
■
terminal and Hill the 11101111C111C
against pictures or \ idet)S of a sus
pect taken anywhere at any time. Its
shortcomint! is that aCCIMICV deterio-
rate , : depending on the quality of
;Irchix cd imalN
In countries where we huge visa
requirements, we can get a photo
graph.- said Visionics President Jo
seph Atic. "We can never guarantee
we can capture everybody, but this
is an ellective shield trout terrorism.'.
In San Diego, Fril: Viirie, a cogni
tive scientist and president Of the
computer technology [inn Sapien
Systems, has developed a different
use for biometrics, designing a soft
ware program that can measure eye
movements against a computerized
signature that detects stress.
"You look for signs over which
people really have no control. - Yin re
said. He has used the system to gauge
fiitigue in soldiers and truck drivers,
hut it could readily accommodate air-
line passengers.
"If the person matches the indica
tors, a red light would come on, -
Viirre said. - This could capture all
kinds of things - somebody totally
afraid of flying. or drunk or poten
tially violent
At security checkpoints. airports
and airlines have many other tech
nologies from which to choose.
Hand-recognition scanners
Some airports are using hand-recognition scanners to secure
access to doors leading to aircraft operations and baggage-handling
areas. The devices snap a
Simulated
cocaine
Plastic
handgun
Metal file
Plexiglass
knife
KRT PHOTOGRAPH
~~ ~~ ~
/~ ~ ,
Wireless
networking
debuts
by Jarred Heigel
stall writer
'Fechnolop , resources have been im
proved in several areas at Penn State
Behrend since last semester.
Behrend is experimenting with wire
less networking for students, which al
lows students to access the Penn State
network without physically connecting
a computer to the system with cables.
The money for this project comes from
the student technology fee that all stu
dents pay with their tuition, so there is
Ti( extra cost for the networking.
There are currently two access points
on Berhend's campus, one in the Reed
Building and one in the Computer Cen
ter in Hammermill. Students can there
fore utilize wireless networking while
in Bruno's. the Reed Wintergarden, the
Reed e-mail kiosk by the student mail
boxes. and in the food kiosk in Roche
Hall. To utilize the wireless network, a
student needs his or her own laptop. a
Mobile network data port. and a wire
less adapter that can he obtained from
the Computer Center.
Behrend has also implemented a
technology advisory group. which al
lows students to make suggestions on
technology issues. This group helped
bring printing capabilities to the e-mail
kiosks. new kiosks around campus in
cluding in the library. and wireless net
working.
The group also helps advise Ron
Iloffman. manager of network and in
formation systems, on spending the
technology money. Hoffman said that
he Wants a balanced group represent
ing all of 13chrend's four academic
schools. so all students arc welcome to
come to the next meeting on Friday,
Octoher 26, at 4 p.m. in Reed 114.
One other change since last semester
is 2.1-hour access now provided to the
Nick 156 computer lab. For access af
ter midnight and on the weekends, stu
dents have to enter from the front of the
Engineering Complex using their II)
cards.
Barringer Instruments of Warren,
N.J., makes a desktop machine that
can tell whether a passenger has
handled explosives by swabbing
down a piece of luggage and running
the sample through on-site chemical
analysis. The Federal Aviation Ad
ministration has bought dozens of the
lonscan machines from Barringer
and distributes them to U.S. airports.
Barringer's chief competitor,
Thermo Electron of Waltham, Mass.,
got its start in forensics, monitoring
air crash wreckage to determine if an
explosion occurred and where the ex
plosive may have originated. Spokes
woman Caroline Grossman said the
FAA recently inquired how fast the
company can make the machines.
The FAA also buys and distributes
to airports an X-ray scanning ma
chine that can create a three-dimen
sional picture of the inside of
someone's luggage
security equivalent of a medical CAT
"If the system finds a density simi
lar to that of an explosive, it will is
sue an alarm," said Yotam Margalit,
director of product management for
InVision, the Newark, Calif., firm
that makes the scanner. If the ma-
chine recognizes "areas of interest."
it will stop and scrutinize them more
carefully
picture of a person's
hand, take
measurements from
that picture, and use
an algorithm to
compare them to a
template of a
person's hand stored
in a computer.
A *
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