John Anderton relies on technology that can see crimes before they happen. He is a police officer of the future who doesn't catch criminals who have broken the law, he chases those who haven't yet committed a crime, but have plans to. Anderton is really a fictional character from the popular movie Minority Report, but his method of crime fighting is actually closer to reality than one may expect. Advances in surveillance technology may make this kind of dream a reality. And it could be a dream or a nightmare, depending on who you ask. Object and motion recognition technology is improving, giving the security sector powers that were unbelievable just a few years ago. The emerging research follows the idea that people's mannerisms- the look on their face, the way they movecan reveal a lot about what they plan to do.

Researchers at the Human Factors Division are involved in a venture called Future Attributable Screening Technology (FAST), which is developing technology that notices brief facial movements that are so slight they can't be seen by the naked eye. If someone's expressions are determined to be hostile, they could be detained by police. Along with measuring facial expressions, high-tech sensors could do a detailed check-up on you while you wait in line to a board a plane. Similar to how RFID technology can remotely access information from only a couple of meters away, these sensors could measure the temperature of someone's skin, the way that their blood is flowing, whether or not they are sweating, and their heart and breathing rates. Tests have shown the system to be about 80% accurate, which sounds impressive until we realize that a success rate like that would still have one innocent out of every five accused.

Supporters of this technology argue that FAST would be hugely beneficial, as it could allow criminals to be easily spotted without much fuss or investigation. They say it makes telling the good guys from the bad guys less complicated, as it removes variables like race, age and gender. Behavior is all that matters. It is supposed to only measure emotional behavior that can't be controlled. If you're up to no good, the sensors will know whether you want them to or not. At least that is what FAST's designers are hoping for. Human emotions are a tough thing to judge. It's challenging to be exactly sure how someone is feeling, and criminals are often trained to conceal their emotions. Also, signals which seem to reveal hostile intent change with context. Someone who is running late or had a bad day at the office may show the same signs of distress as someone with sinister intentions. Clearly not everyone handles situations in the same way and there must be some differences in how people react physically.

That is alarming to those who defend civic rights. FAST, they say, gives government undue power to physically examine people and invade their privacy. As the technology isn't completely reliable, it would almost certainly lead to innocent people being detained, questioned and otherwise harassed for crimes they didn't commit. It also brings about the legal grey area of apprehending someone for something they haven't done yet, but were planning to do. There is the chance that this type of technology may open the door to a government with too much power over its citizens. At the end of Minority Report, the program is scrapped and all criminals imprisoned under it are released. It ended up that more harm than good was being done, as accusing people of crimes tended to just start a new cycle of conflict and violence. Whatever the future of FAST, it could be one more reason to smile and look happy, as no one wants to be mistaken for someone with evil up their sleeve.