Gatwick Airport looking to bolster security by measuring brain waves

Analysing brain waves allows for faster security checks, but the challenge is making it as accurate in the live environment as it is in the lab, says Gatwick Airport CIO Cathal Corcoran

Gatwick airport is trialling new technology which aims to help security staff recognise potentially dangerous items by analysing their brain waves.

Security staff wear a piece of headgear which measures their brain waves as they watch passengers' bags being scanned - at a faster rate than their conscious brains can register - and a computer recognises the brain wave pattern as the sub-conscious perceives a dangerous item.

Gatwick Airport CIO Cathal Corcoran explained that the machine first needs to be trained on how each person's brain registers certain objects.

"A gun for you could be six flicks on the brain wave monitor, whereas for me it could be four," he began. "You have a piece where you train the software at the start, then you can process up to three images per second."

This is three times faster than the current rate, where security staff process around one image per second.

Corcoran added that whilst the system is very accurate in lab trials, it still need to prove itself in the field.

"When you use it in a lab environment you get around 90 per cent or more accuracy. If you can replicate that in the live environment, that would be special, but it needs regulatory approval.

"We're not even at the MVP stage yet, it's early in our innovation pipeline," he said.

Corcoran said that he envisages using the system for quality assurance, that is verifying the findings of security staff scanning in the traditional way, rather than replacing existing techniques.

"Say you've got three people processing one image per second traditionally, you could have a fourth using this system and providing quality assurance for the other three. It's an extra layer of defence, and it'll be there in that capacity until everyone gets used to the technology and the regulators get comfortable."

He admitted that the concept still needs work, with its level of false positives a particular stumbling block currently.

"The thing that needs work is level of false positives. It would be great if you can analyse three images per second with 90 per cent accurancy. But if there are lots of false positives, they all need to be worked through manually which can cause delays, and that needs solving before we can use it in the live environment."

A recent report claimed that airports are ill-equipped to handle cyber attacks.