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Ministry of Silly Walks

Maureen Dowd skrifar um mjög svo creepy prógramm hjá bandarískum yfirvöldum, Walk This Way. Menn ætla sér að geta greint eftirlýsta hryðjuverkamenn með því að skanna göngulag fólks og leita eftir "rétta göngulaginu" við leit að hryðjuverkamönnum. Já, þetta hljómar of lygilegt til að vera satt.

Not since Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks has a government devoted so much money and study to watching our steps.

Admiral Poindexter, who supervised the strutting Oliver North during the Iran-contra machinations, is now supervising the Pentagon's attempt to create an Orwellian "virtual, centralized grand database," which could put a spyglass on Americans' every move, from literally the way Americans move to their virtual moves, scanning shopping, e-mail, bank deposits, vacations, medical prescriptions, academic grades and trips to the vet. (Sometimes pets are the first to go in biological warfare.)

One of the technologies the Pentagon is working on, as The A.P.'s Michael Sniffen reported, is a radar-based device that can identify people by the way they walk for use in a new antiterrorist surveillance system.

"Operating on the theory that an individual's walk is as unique as a signature, the Pentagon has financed a research project at the Georgia Institute of Technology that has been 80 to 95 percent successful in identifying people," he wrote.

The Pentagon, which wants to be able to identify people at 500 feet, has also enlisted the help of Carnegie Mellon University. Researchers there in biometrics are developing a video recognition method of gait analysis, which could be used by embassy security officers to check out shadowy figures.

© 2003 The New York Times Company

Og svo heldur pistillinn áfram og jafnframt hárið að rísa. Svo ég vitni nú bara í Woody Allen, "I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it's the government."
Agust skrifaði 21.05.03 17:40

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