Newsstand - Airline smart-seat 'can detect hijackers'

British scientists are working on an intelligent aircraft passenger seat that can help crews spot nervous terrorists or people at risk of deep vein thrombosis.

According to New Scientist the device is being developed by engineers at QinetiQ, formerly part of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, in Farnborough, Hampshire.

The seat contains pressure sensors linked to a computer to assess the occupant's behaviour.

It should be able to tell if a passenger has been sitting still for too long, raising the risk of DVT.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_789634.html

What's next-- seat that sets an alarm off if a passenger passes too much gas? After all, that could indicate some sort of gastrointestinal problem that the passenger needs to be made aware of.

Or how about requiring people to wear blood pressure monitors? I'm sure that hijackers have elevated blood pressure just before they're about to take over an aircraft. That would certainly catch them before the act (along with a few million Americans that just have high blood pressure-- but it's worth the invasion of privacy, isn't it?).

Geez, how about allowing the airlines to sedate all passengers just before takeoff? They could save a bundle of money by not having to pass out those little 2oz drinks and .5oz package of pretzels, I'm sure... The TSA could argue that they must be allowed to sedate and strip search you prior to takeoff "for security reasons"... Where will all this nonsense end?

Any argument that it's for the passenger's health is a load of crock. This is a blatant invasion of privacy and should never be installed on any airplane or other public place.

hopefully it will measure more than pucker. otherwise, it would get a lot of false positives from the white knuckle set.

I read "eject" instead of "detect" in your title. Gave me a pretty good laugh and a little concern when I thought they were also going to eject those whom had been sitting in their seats too long.

This is the stupidest idea ever. There are tons of people out there who hate flying and/or are nervous whenever they fly (you can hate flying but not be nervous about it, usually really FFs who don't get the perks we get http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif) Label them as a terrorist because they are nervous? Someone needs to be fired from their job.

and the airlines could SELL the passengers the sedatives to balance their books

Those of us forced to endure the *30 minute rule* would really set off their alarms. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

And what if there is absolutely no room to move?