Airplane safety project records prayers
Air passengers could have their conversations and movements monitored as work intensifies to design the terrorist-proof aeroplane.
Researchers in Britain and Europe are looking at technology that would see a comprehensive network of microphones and cameras installed throughout the aircraft, including the lavatory, which would be linked to a computer.
This computer would be “trained” to pick up suspicious behaviour, said Catherine Neary, of Bae Systems, one of the British participants in a £24/$45 million European Union project Safety of Aircraft in Future European Environment.
“It would pick passengers who are behaving oddly or in an unruly manner,” she said. “They may appear nervous, or could be getting up while the plane is taxiing. If someone looks as if they are praying, the microphones would be able to tell if they were by picking up key words.”
Eventually, the computer would be programmed to understand a variety of languages.
“Passengers are not being snooped on by humans, but by machines which will process the data, which would not be stored after the flight unless there is an incident,” she said.
“There are likely to be cameras and microphones in the toilet, because that is where terrorists go to assemble bombs.” The camera could also be trained to detect seemingly harmless items being left in aircraft lavatories that could later be assembled to make a lethal device.
“If people know they will be safer, they will be happy to accept the sensors, but we are considering the legal implications of this.”
Bae Systems is co-operating with Reading University on the project designed to make the aircraft as secure as possible. “We are concentrating on onboard threat protection,” said James Ferryman, a lecturer in computer science.
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