
Pentagon has a laser that can identify people at a distance by their heartbeat - davesailer
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613891/the-pentagon-has-a-laser-that-can-identify-people-from-a-distanceby-their-heartbeat/
======
fit2rule
I saw a demonstration of this technology a few years back, at a European
military-industrial contractor for which I worked.

It was being pitched as the ideal way to assassinate people in a crowd -
identify them by heartbeat signature, fly a drone in to drop a small explosive
package on their heads.

When I later saw that biometric information was being harvested by the same
company at airports around the world, I figured - time to get a different job.
So I quit.

And now, the tech of individually-targeted assassinations is coming to market.

~~~
dpedu
> It was being pitched as the ideal way to assassinate people in a crowd -
> identify them by heartbeat signature, fly a drone in to drop a small
> explosive package on their heads.

Hmm, if you're already shining a laser on your target it seems to me there are
simpler ways to achieve your goal...

~~~
deepnotderp
High power lasers aren't easy at all to create and point. A bomb or gun is
much easier.

~~~
askvictor
I think OP was alluding to a rifle with a laser sight

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diydsp
> He claims that Jetson can achieve over 95% accuracy under good conditions

Isn't it critical to state how many signatures are in the database when
quoting an accuracy? 95% accuracy among 4 different heartbeats is much easier
than 95% accuracy among 2^32 heartbeats, many of which will resemble one
another.

~~~
decko
Could be that it's configured with a single signature, and it can determine a
match with 95 % accuracy

~~~
avs733
if I run eonugh t-tests thats better than an ANOVA

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akeck
Gait plus heartbeat plus... It doesn't take much make a unique identification:

[https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/96321](https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/96321)

~~~
dsfyu404ed
Daisy chain enough non-unique ID's together and you get something that's close
enough to unique for the purposes of the people who will be implementing this.

While the guy who's getting droned or the dude getting the shit kicked out of
him by a bunch of cops may care about identification, the people doing those
things don't really care as long as they get the right guy often enough
compared to the wrong guy.

~~~
lostlogin
> the people doing those things don't really care as long as they get the
> right guy often enough compared to the wrong guy.

I’m not sure that’s always accurate. The infamous “We don’t do body counts”
episode comes to mind.

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Tharkun
Why do they even need a laser? You can use a simple webcam to get an HR
reading from the face. Here's an article from half a decade ago:
[https://www.geek.com/apps/measure-your-heart-rate-using-a-
we...](https://www.geek.com/apps/measure-your-heart-rate-using-a-webcam-and-
your-forehead-1552180/)

~~~
vnchr
Faces can be obscured or disguised. Gaits can be adjusted. Heartbeats...maybe
caffeine pills could be used to avoid identification?

~~~
Verdex
I wonder if you can hack your pacemaker to fool this technique.

Then of course the next question is: I wonder if you can hack someone else's
pacemaker.

~~~
BuildTheRobots
Yes. Numerous hacks have been shown over the last decade and if you're a
tinfoil hat aficionado, then some people believe it's why Barnby Jack was
murdered before presenting at Defcon.

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JimBrimble35
Sure this is a neat toy, but where are they going to get data on _everyone's_
heart signatures to make this practical. That's not going to be eas...

Looks at Apple watch.. looks at fitbit.. looks at Samsung phone with heartbeat
monitor..

huh

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Timothycquinn
If the scanning system has a database of your regular pulmonary patterns,
can't this be used, albeit crudely, to detect the emotional state of a
subject?

With automation I can't help but think that this is unfortunately going to
bring George Orwell's dystopian vision closer to reality.

~~~
davemp
Considering that polygraphs are mostly a sham, I'd say no, these couldn't be
used to detect emotional state.

~~~
roywiggins
Polygraphs supposedly detect intentional lies. That seems much harder than
just trying to get a general sense of "are they relaxed or anxious", "are they
happy or sad."

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vmh1928
While the article and the other comments are about military uses this could
also be used for physical access security instead of finger or iris (or
badge.) The next question would be if there is a way to spoof someone else's
heartbeat signature. Maybe a flat panel speaker playing a recording of the
other person's heartbeat. Good morning Mr. Phelps.....

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Biometrics makes a terrible authentication system. Sometimes there's not much
more than 8 bits of state there. Your garage door opener is more secure.

~~~
rhacker
Biometrics has always scared me. The thieves will take your finger for a
fingerprint scan, your hand for a hand scan, your head for a retina scan.

~~~
cardiffspaceman
This requires your heart to actually beat so the pros and cons on both sides
are different:

A thief can't steal your heart.

A thief could still threaten your life.

You can't repudiate your heart.

If you get a heart transplant, at first the 'system' might not have a workflow
for changing your expected heart signature.

~~~
sumnulu
Some of them can steal:

    
    
      - Jesse James
      - Bonnie and Clyde
      - Arsene Lupin
      - Lupin the third

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d--b
> [facial recognition] needs good, frontal view of the face, which can be hard
> to obtain, especially from a drone.

Yeah, well having a drone flying at 200 meters from the target while aiming
what must be a heavy laser is not exactly a piece of cake either.

~~~
theandrewbailey
Don't military drones fly at extremely high altitudes?

~~~
leereeves
Different kind of drone.

In addition to the unmanned bombers that fly at high altitude, the military
also has low-altitude surveillance drones like:

[https://www.avinc.com/uas/view/raven](https://www.avinc.com/uas/view/raven)

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pavel_lishin
I wonder what methods exist to alter your heart's distinctive rhythm.
Presumably if you had a pacemaker installed, you could tinker with it (albeit
at great risk.) But could I alter my heart's signature by taking medication?

~~~
inflatableDodo
I think it might be easier and less dangerous to try and fool this particular
technology by vibrating your clothing to mask the signal.

~~~
kjaftaedi
It probably wouldn't be overly difficult to make simple clothing that renders
these lasers useless.

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aiyodev
I see people are pointing out the 95% accuracy. I think it’s worth reminding
everyone that the current American criteria for killing people with drone
strikes requires that they 1) be male and 2) appear from orbit to be above a
certain height. There’s no requirement to have someone on the ground to pick
out targets or make sure afterwards that the right person was killed.

------
trhway
may be Pentagon will just use it to remotely monitor the health of the
soldiers or soundness of the defensive fortification structures ...

Reminded about remote diagnostics using camera
[https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mit-
algorithm](https://www.wired.co.uk/article/mit-algorithm)

"The algorithm can find subtle changes in motion and amplify those, too. By
pointing a camera at an artery, we see the imperceptible beat of a wrist
become a pounding great pulsation that's straining to burst out of an arm. The
rise and fall of a breathing chest can also be turned up.

MIT computer scientist Fredo Durand predicts that his algorithm will be used
primarily for remote medical diagnostics. He also imagines that structural
engineers could borrow the tech to measure the way wind makes a building sway
or deform slightly."

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dsfyu404ed
Sure this is cool and could certainly reduce the demand for "signature
strikes" (not that we should be droning people as often as we are in the first
place) but it sounds like yet another thing we'll be seeing big city police
departments using to enhance their dragnet 10yr from now.

~~~
drawnwren
It won't require a warrant because you were beating your heart in public.

~~~
cardiffspaceman
I would think there are some aspects of your heart's behavior that are not
ordinarily public.

~~~
qseraserasera
You can volunteer with a wearable heart monitor

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neonate
[http://archive.is/obIpd](http://archive.is/obIpd)

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reaperducer
_Pentagon has a laser that can identify people at a distance by their
heartbeat_

Ha! Joke's on them. My ex says I don't have a heart!

Seriously, though. Imagine the medical diagnostic possibilities of something
like this. Not this thing exactly, obviously. But something that won't kill
people.

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debt
A Scanner Darkly comes to mine. A suit that's able to game all this
surveillance tech: gait masking, face scrambling, heartbeat obfuscation.

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Gene5ive
Wow the new Fitbit sounds very accurate.

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throw20102010
I looked through all the comments but still haven't seen an answer to an
obvious limitation(that is posed near the end of the article): Where are they
getting their library of heartbeats from? I'm sure the CIA is collecting, but
being able to positively ID someone with their heartbeat is useless unless you
already have a verified record of their heartbeat.

Imagine the case of finding an elusive person (such as Saddam Hussein or Osama
Bin Laden), somebody has to go collect a verified sample _BEFORE_ an
assassination takes place. But if you are in a position to collect a sample of
someone's heartbeat and you _KNOW_ that it's the right person through some
other verifiable means (you need to know if you actually got OBL instead of a
body double), then what does this really get you? You already had some
trustworthy source, and you can probably use this previous source to verify
that you assassinated the right person.

So this heartbeat ID tech may be more accurate and robust compared to facial
recognition, but it's less useful in actuality. We already have verified
pictures of most adults in the world via passports and driver's licenses and
such, which makes facial recognition a ton more useful in real life.

The problem that this heartbeat tech "solves," the ability to ID someone with
great accuracy, is hamstrung by the fact that the elusive people we have the
greatest need for an ID like this won't have their data available. For non-
elusive people we can already find them by getting their picture and address
out of a database.

But you can bet the CIA realizes this limitation and will work diligently over
the next few years to get heartprints of Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, and
other notorious figures at every public appearance so that they can slowly
build a library that will be useful down the road.

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wumms
> This works though typical clothing like a shirt and a jacket (though not
> thicker clothing such as a winter coat).

Will wearing a winter jacket (e.g. in airports) still be legal in a couple of
years?

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1-6
Hmm, I wonder if my Apple Watc...

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lichenwarp
Bob Lazar knew about this in 1920

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ikeyany
Does anyone know where I can find a nice lead breastplate?

~~~
scarmig
Then you can bask in the joy of the anonymity of being the guy who walks
around with a breastplate.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
My boys wore chainmail in high school routinely. Everybody got used to it
easier than you might imagine.

~~~
GrinningFool
> My boys wore chainmail in high school routinely.

Interesting - mind if I ask why?

~~~
JoeAltmaier
They made some of it; were very interested in SCA etc.

