Researchers developing biometric intent scanners
Researchers with the Canadian defense department are currently exploring how to analyze an individual’s hostile intent to intercept them before they commit a hostile act; researchers with the Canadian Defense Research and Development aim to push biometric identification to a new level where scanning technology can actually read peoples’ minds; researchers are hoping to use the “biometrics of intent” to distinguish if an individual who appears nervous and is pacing at an airport is simply anxious or actually dangerous; scientists say the goal is difficult, but not impossible; they are still far from achieving their goals and research is in its early phases
Researchers with the Canadian defense department are currently exploring how to analyze an individual’s hostile intent to intercept them before they commit a hostile act.
The Canadian researchers aim to push biometric identification to a new level where scanning technology can actually read peoples’ minds.
The Canadian Defense Research and Development department recently released a research paper that detailed the program’s intent. It stated that the reading of hostile emotions “can be used by members of the military and the security forces to isolate adversaries prior to commission of actions.”
Determining an individual’s intent as unique from emotions is difficult, but not impossible, says Dr. Oshin Vartanian, a Canadian defense scientist who specializes in cognitive neuroscience.
“Intentions are formed at a later time point compared to beliefs and emotions, so the idea is that some level of mental effort goes into forming intentions,” he said.
Dr. Vartanian and his colleagues Alexandra Muller-Gass and Stergios Stergiopoulos are seeking to determine the brain’s physiological state during various mental states.
They are currently working on a database that records the various electrical signals flowing through a test subject’s mind as they are exposed to images that are intended to induce anxiety-provoking emotional states.
But, the scientists have had trouble distinguishing between specific emotions.
“If you were simply looking to distinguish a negative from a positive state, we can do that quite reliably. But within negative states, say you wanted to parse anger from sadness from fear, that becomes much trickier,” says Dr. Vartanian.
Their goal is to create standards to measure an individual’s normal psychological and behavioral responses to then isolate the physiology of intentional mental states.
The scientists are still far from achieving their goals and research is in its early phases.
Looking ahead, Dr. Vartanian and his team are already concerned about what potential future uses their research will be put towards.
“Me and a lot of other people have been quite worried about the fact the people have become prematurely enthusiastic about the use of this technology in the future for defensive security,” he says.
He explained, “As a discipline, psychology is over 100 years old and we still don’t have very good psychological models of intentional states to then really propagate that a level higher to biological indicators of intentional states.”
“I think it’s going to take a very long time and I think the verdict is still out as to whether this can really be used in the future or not.”
Dr. Vartanian believes that it will be years before this technology becomes viable and wants to see it tested extensively before it is applied to law enforcement or defense purposes.
He said, “Unless you are on very solid footing that you’ve got a very reliable and valid method. The pragmatic thing to do is to see whether you can do more rudimentary things first.”
