U.S. to Deploy Proven Technology on Borders

The Department of Homeland Security today awards a multi-billion dollar contract to beef up border security. The anticipated winner is Boeing. Despite the aerospace giant's background, Boeing's border security plan is less high tech than you might expect.

NPR's Martin Kaste has more.

MARTIN KASTE: It's not as though the border isn't already wired up. It is - at least parts of it are. ... Robert Pless is assistant director of the Center for Security Technologies at Washington University in St. Louis.

Professor ROBERT PLESS (Center for Security Technologies, Washington University): Drones for surveillance is a little bit challenging.

KASTE: Pless works on software that lets cameras look for trouble automatically and recognize the difference between a sneaking smuggler and rolling tumbleweeds. Such software will be increasingly needed as border guards are forced to scan an ever-growing number of video images. But Pless says it won't be much help if the cameras are flying.

Prof. PLESS: The way these algorithms work is you compare the current image to the image at the same time the previous day, and you see what's different. And if the drones don't know exactly where they are, you might not have a good background image to compare the current frame to.

KASTE: By keeping its cameras on the ground, Boeing will have an easier time getting computers to comb through all those new video feeds. Even so, the Border Patrol will have a lot more information to process. Boeing's Villanueva says the company wants to set up enough sensors to achieve what he calls 100 percent detection along the 6,000 odd-miles of border. Robert Pless says be careful of what you wish for.

Prof. PLESS: You can certainly have 100 percent detection if you have a trillion false alarms. So the question is, can you get close to 100 percent detection with the cost that you're spending on responding to the true and false detections being within some limits? That's usually where the policy decisions are made.

•	U.S. to Deploy Proven Technology on Borders NPR - Morning Edition, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006 Byline: Lynn Neary, host