Technology identifies troubled individuals

[Eugen Leitl]

(I love the smell of bullshit in the morning).

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article201702.ece

Technology identifies troubled individuals

By Lou Michel

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Published:

September 26, 2010, 12:00 AM

Updated: September 26, 2010, 6:36 AM

Imagine using the same technology to locate a lone bomber before he carries
out his terrorist act and to identify a troubled veteran or first responder
ground down by tragedies and violence.

Stop imagining.

Some 120 local first responders from law enforcement and other agencies, the
military and mental health professionals gathered Friday to hear firsthand
about an advanced computer program that can accomplish those two seemingly
different tasks.

The presentation was part of the International First Responder-Military
Symposium held at Hilbert College in the Town of Hamburg.

A Swiss professor working with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology
scientist who heads the Mind Machine Project there outlined how this program
operates through computerized scanning of phone calls and electronic messages
sent through e-mail and social networking mechanisms.

bSuppose you know therebs a threat to the president when he is visiting, say,
Texas. Through information obtained by the National Security Agency, we have
the tools to go through huge quantities of data obtained from that area,b
said professor Mathieu Guidere of the University of Geneva.

How? bThe computer system detects resentment in conversations through
measurements in decibels and other voice biometrics,b he said. bIt detects
obsessiveness with the individual going back to the same topic over and over,
measuring crescendos.b

As for written transmissions scrutinized by the computer program, it can
detect the same patterns of fixation on specified subjects, said Guidere, who
has worked for years screening mass data that involves radicalization and
ideological indoctrination.

Using character traits that have been identified through psychological
profiles conducted on lone bombers following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks, Guidere said he and his colleagues developed programs that isolate
signs pointing to a potential terrorist.

He said lone bombers, in particular, are not mentally deranged but harbor
hatred and deep resentment toward government. Their emotional spikes, Guidere
explained, can be identified by the computer program.

The practical side is that once the individual has been identified, the
information can be passed along to authorities so surveillance can begin, he
said.

Currently, the computer program can review 10,000 voice or other electronic
transmissions in an hour. The goal, the professor said, is to increase the
capacity to 100,000 per hour.

On the civilian side, the program can be used by psychologists and other
mental health providers working with war veterans, law enforcement officials
and others to measure their progress in recovery.

bBy recording the voice of the patient, the program can rate negativity and
positivity with depression and other emotional disorders,b said Guidere, who
is working with Dr. Newton Howard, director of MITbs Mind Machine Project.