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What would sane people do? A simple alarm(1) would have sent a patrol car out to investigate. A wet tired man would have been brought to the airport infirmary w

What would sane people do? A simple alarm(1) would have sent a patrol car out to investigate. A wet tired man would have been brought to the airport infirmary where a few questions would have been asked verifying his story while he was checked for hypothermia. The truly paranoid might have sent a coast guard boat out to get the jet-ski, further confirming his story (and hooray, getting him his wallet back). He's home for dinner with a story to tell. Honestly now, how many Americans think that this isn't the way this should have happened? How in the hell did we get this far off course? It sounds from the story that the thing they're most upset about is missing an opportunity to lock down the whole airport while they dressed up as storm troopers and traipsed about in their armored doohickeys pretending to save the world. I think we're voting on all the wrong stuff this November. (1) ...That works because we've had that technology since 1947.

egiva 14y ago
At these airports we've lost the human caring, the human service-related element that makes America great. - I think that there's no demonstrable security value for the majority of these projects, and since 2001 we've allowed the defense industry to ingrain top-heavy industrialized defense projects into our daily American life - militarizing America. Along the way we've lost some of our true values and this doesn't make us a better, safer country. Where's the article about saving a stranded man and helping reunite him with his family? The possibility that they would have locked down a major airport, stranding thousands of travelers and generating millions of dollars in lost revenues would have been a true farce. How many armed guards could you hire, trained to HELP as well as protect, for the cost of a $100 Million lemon defense system? At least we would be helping solve the unemployment problem, rather than pumping countless millions into the coffers of international defense companies like Raytheon.
- bsimpson 14y ago
  Then they'd have a legitimate reason to fine him millions of dollars for being lost and stranded.
brk 14y ago
A simple alarm(1) would have sent a patrol car out to investigate. Sorry, but no. They're covering miles of outdoor perimeter. The problem is that there are very few technologies that can reliably detect things like people, while ignoring things like various animals (or heat from jet engines, etc.).
- david_b 14y ago
  I don't know when they erected this security system, but shouldn't this be a much smaller problem now with the progress in image processing? Put up a bunch of cameras and let humans weed out the false positives?
  - brk 14y ago
    This system is/was actually using video analytics as part of the overall strategy. Video analytics can be very reliable, but you can't rely on humans to weed out the false positives very effectively. I've heard of (heard of, as in been involved in replacing them) video analytics systems that generated hundreds of false alarms per night on similar sized deployments. Any human operator is going to quickly become immune to the alerts when they happen at that rate.
- noonespecial 14y ago
  Ported Coaxial Cable Sensor (or leaky cable) has been around for a very long time(1) and was quite reliable even before the advent of computerized DSP to help with detection. (1)I think you could buy them commercially at least as early as the 70's
  - brk 14y ago
    Buried coax and fiber detection systems tend to rank in the bottom 1/3rd of overall reliability (just above the systems that try to detect fence movement and tension changes). In fact, I rarely hear of new deployments considering these technologies (though I'm sure there are plenty of them, as the companies are still in business).
- powertower 14y ago
satori99 14y ago
A similar thing happend in Australia, when a man got off a boat on Sydney harbour wharf belonging to the Prime Ministers residence rather than a public one. He was dressed in camo style pants and had to climb a wall into the compound to get off the wharf. Nothing much happened to him, as the Prime Minister was not there at the time. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kirribillis-accidental-intruder/2006/09/21/1158431843952.html http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kirribillis-accidental-i...

egiva 14y ago

At these airports we've lost the human caring, the human service-related element that makes America great. - I think that there's no demonstrable security value for the majority of these projects, and since 2001 we've allowed the defense industry to ingrain top-heavy industrialized defense projects into our daily American life - militarizing America. Along the way we've lost some of our true values and this doesn't make us a better, safer country. Where's the article about saving a stranded man and helping reunite him with his family? The possibility that they would have locked down a major airport, stranding thousands of travelers and generating millions of dollars in lost revenues would have been a true farce. How many armed guards could you hire, trained to HELP as well as protect, for the cost of a $100 Million lemon defense system? At least we would be helping solve the unemployment problem, rather than pumping countless millions into the coffers of international defense companies like Raytheon.

bsimpson 14y ago
Then they'd have a legitimate reason to fine him millions of dollars for being lost and stranded.

brk 14y ago

A simple alarm(1) would have sent a patrol car out to investigate. Sorry, but no. They're covering miles of outdoor perimeter. The problem is that there are very few technologies that can reliably detect things like people, while ignoring things like various animals (or heat from jet engines, etc.).

david_b 14y ago
I don't know when they erected this security system, but shouldn't this be a much smaller problem now with the progress in image processing? Put up a bunch of cameras and let humans weed out the false positives?
- brk 14y ago
  This system is/was actually using video analytics as part of the overall strategy. Video analytics can be very reliable, but you can't rely on humans to weed out the false positives very effectively. I've heard of (heard of, as in been involved in replacing them) video analytics systems that generated hundreds of false alarms per night on similar sized deployments. Any human operator is going to quickly become immune to the alerts when they happen at that rate.
noonespecial 14y ago
Ported Coaxial Cable Sensor (or leaky cable) has been around for a very long time(1) and was quite reliable even before the advent of computerized DSP to help with detection. (1)I think you could buy them commercially at least as early as the 70's
- brk 14y ago
  Buried coax and fiber detection systems tend to rank in the bottom 1/3rd of overall reliability (just above the systems that try to detect fence movement and tension changes). In fact, I rarely hear of new deployments considering these technologies (though I'm sure there are plenty of them, as the companies are still in business).
powertower 14y ago

satori99 14y ago

A similar thing happend in Australia, when a man got off a boat on Sydney harbour wharf belonging to the Prime Ministers residence rather than a public one. He was dressed in camo style pants and had to climb a wall into the compound to get off the wharf. Nothing much happened to him, as the Prime Minister was not there at the time. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kirribillis-accidental-intruder/2006/09/21/1158431843952.html http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kirribillis-accidental-i...