Deception Detection

Sensors tested for Project Hostile Intent aim to identify signs of deception right on the spot

With 400 million people entering the country every year, authorities are always on the lookout for individuals who may harbor hostile intent toward the United States and its citizens. But while measures such as biometrics—including fingerprints, iris, and facial scans—are in place to detect known terrorists, how do we detect those without a past? What about those with no known ties to terrorist organizations? Or those who do not appear in any government database?

Now, with a program called Project Hostile Intent, the Human Factors Division of the DHS S&T Directorate aims to answer these questions. Through Directorate-sponsored research, capabilities are being sought to identify deception and hostile intent in real time, on the spot, using non-invasive sensors. The goal is a prototype technology that can equal or exceed the abilities of today’s screening methods—without ever impeding the flow of travelers.

Project Hostile Intent comprises two components. First, hostile intent and deception models are needed, focusing on behavioral and speech cues. These cues are determined from experiments derived from operationally based scenarios that reflect the screening and interviewing objectives of DHS. Second, an automated suite of non-invasive sensors and algorithms is needed. Integrated, these sensors automatically detect and track the input cues to the models.

“The early test results have us cautiously optimistic,” said Larry Willis, the program manager for the project. “This technology has the potential to revolutionize the screening and interviewing process supporting access control for borders and critical infrastructure.”

For more information about this story, click here

Eye in the Sky

Project Chloe could be a game-changing way to detect threats

Just five feet long and roughly 35 pounds, shoulder-launched missile systems are easy to conceal by terrorists and often use infrared homing to find their targets. These systems—called MANPADS (man-portable air defense systems)—are not only a real concern for commercial airlines; they are a real challenge for homeland security agencies searching for a workable counter-strategy. Science and technology to the rescue.

Technologies now being explored could be mounted onto planes, aiming to both detect and deflect MANPADS. But airlines would prefer countermeasures that they would not have to operate and maintain. Therefore, through research sponsored by the Explosives Division at the S&T Directorate, another option is gaining ground: flying a single, unmanned vehicle or system high above an airport—at about 65,000 feet—to scan the area below, identify a MANPADS launch, and remotely deflect the weapon out of the sky in a matter of seconds.

Named Project Chloe (after the character on the popular television show 24), this project involves engagement with both industry and the military. In fact, a broad agency announcement, requesting proposals, was released and is available at www.fedbizopps.gov.

Because of the high altitude of such a vehicle, researchers are also looking at using the same project to defend against security threats adjacent to the airports. These may include illegal border crossings and threats to nearby highways, waterways, and other critical infrastructures.

“Project Chloe will definitely require us to take a look at game-changing technologies over the next several years,” said Kerry Wilson, who manages the Counter-MANPADS Program at the Directorate. “If successful, this concept will go a long way in protecting the Nation from MANPADS and other threats.”

For more information about this story, click here

Landing on Its Feet

DHS Fellow Brian Taylor holds demos of his Micro Morphing Air and Land Vehicle

The next generation of scientists and engineers will be designing the next generation of technologies for defense and homeland security. Brian Taylor, a DHS Fellow at Case Western Reserve University, for instance, is working on a concept for a new unmanned vehicle. It even has a Star Trek–esque name: the Micro Morphing Air and Land Vehicle.

Taylor’s concept is a small, unmanned plane that is able to both fly and, when needed, walk on the ground. “Its purpose is to serve as an unmanned hybrid land/air vehicle that can be sent into hazardous or hostile environments,” he says.

A Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering, Taylor says his design combines the ground mobility expertise of research conducted at Case Western with aerial experience from the University of Florida. His lab work focuses on using the insights gained through the studies of biological mechanisms and principles to advance the field of robotics.

The vehicle, which has different models, is made with a lightweight carbon-fiber fuselage and fabric wings that fold to the side. The folding wings not only add to its uniqueness but also assist with the functionality of the wingspan, which can be as long as two feet. Its reduced size when not flying also allows for increased ground mobility, protection of the wings during ground operation, and easy transport when not in operation.

Taylor is a fellowship recipient from the Office of University Programs at the S&T Directorate and a member of the DHS Student and Alumni Network. DHS University Programs invests in the Nation’s colleges and universities for homeland security, providing research grants as well as scholarships and fellowships to individuals and institutions.

For more information about this story, click here

Razing Cane

Carrizo cane takes over near Eagle Pass, TX, where the larva of the Arundo fly may be used

Several hundred years ago, a particularly noxious weed called Carrizo cane hitched itself a ride from Europe’s Iberian Peninsula to the U.S.-Mexico border, and there it has flourished very well ever since. Today, the weed stands as both a nuisance to the region and a threat to homeland security.

Also known as elephant grass, giant reed, or—scientifically—Arundo donax L., Carrizo cane is a ubiquitous, determined weed that chokes waterways, erodes banks and water canals, damages bridges, and inhibits biodiversity. It spreads quickly, with underground rhizomes shooting upwards of 18 feet, and it provides potentially dangerous illegal aliens with the cover they need to slip into the United States from across the Rio Grande. It is a major impediment, in particular, to DHS-led operations between Laredo and Del Rio, Texas—overrunning border access roads, reducing visibility, and hiding illegal activities.

But all that is about to change … perhaps with a fly, perhaps with a wasp, perhaps with a parasitic insect called a scale. The DHS S&T Directorate, through the Border and Maritime Security Division, is sponsoring research to identify natural predators of the related Carrizo reed in Europe and to introduce them here to do battle. Three biological control agents are being considered: Tetramesa romana, known as Arundo wasp, lays its eggs in the cane stem, where the larvae cause lethal galls to form in the stem; larvae of Cryptonevra, known as Arundo fly, kill new plant shoots of the cane; and Rhizaspidiotus donacis, or Arundo scale, feeds on the rhizomes.

“This cane presents many problems for our Border Patrol agents, and they’ve asked for help,” says Gerry Kirwin, program manager for biological control of the cane. “Their remote video surveillance cameras cannot penetrate it, and it allows smugglers to cross the Rio Grande and approach agents virtually undetected.”

The biological control program of the Carrizo Reed has many components, including a quarantined evaluation of agents to make sure our own native ecology is protected. The goal is to properly evaluate these agents, to select and gain approval for them, and to conduct a pilot release program on the Rio Grande near Laredo. If the pilot test is effective, a larger mass-breeding and mass application program could be implemented.

For more information about this story, click here

S&T Snapshots is a monthly newsletter produced by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate in partnership with the Homeland Security Institute. HSI is a Studies and Analysis Federally Funded Research and Development Center.