Minority Report

World View columnist Paul Raines is concerned about the possible implications of combining networked surveillance and behavioral observation

November 04, 2008 — CSO — In 1956 Philip K. Dick published a short story called Minority Report which was subsequently made into a moderately successful film starring Tom Cruise. If you saw the film or read the story you may remember that the plot revolves around a system designed to predict crimes and then arresting people in advance for crimes which they hadn't yet committed. Chilling thought, that.

Perhaps even more disconcerting is that with the latest generation of security surveillance technology, reality is now hovering dangerously close to fiction. According to a recent article in the weekly news magazine, The Economist, surveillance technology has now advanced to the point where cameras can monitor a person's behaviour (e.g. their gait, posture and how long they've been at a certain location) and using computer models correlate that behaviour with likely subsequent action (e.g. the detonation of a explosive device). Not only that, but some intelligent systems have even gotten to the point of predicting behaviour based on a person's micro-expressions (e.g. the lifting of the eyebrows or a downward gaze) or the sensing of their body metrics (e.g. heart rate, perspiration, breathing rates, etc).

Taking this a step further, one can imagine that if such intelligent surveillance systems were networked, it would be possible to monitor a person's behaviour and tendency to commit a crime throughout the day. According to the British newspaper, The Evening Standard, there are 10,524 crime fighting CCTV cameras in 32 London boroughs. The 7/7 London subway bombings in 2005 were famous (or infamous depending on one's point of view) for being able to demonstrate how the movements of the culprits of the crime could be traced during the day of the bombings by using a combination of public and private CCTVs to capture their movements. Using current technology their actions were merely recorded; however, with the use of intelligent surveillance technology, the terrorist acts could have been predicted, the suspects apprehended and lives potentially saved.

The problem with such technology is that inferring actions based on observed behaviour is often in the cultural eye of the beholder. Travelling throughout Europe I find that the personal "comfort zone" of cultures in Southern Europe are much closer to the body than in Northern Europe. Thus, if a Southern European were queuing up in Oslo, using this technology he might be pulled aside for questioning as a potential pickpocket simply because he was standing too close to the person next in the queue. In most cultures, a curling lip and gyrating hips might to some signify an angry person getting ready to give you a good belt on the noggin. However, having grown up close to Memphis, Tennessee, I would recognize that the person was merely warming up for what could be a really fantastic Elvis impersonation. One person's heart-stopping threat is another's Heartbreak Hotel.