[Host] Hello and welcome to today's Tech Talk with the department of Homeland Security
Science and Technology Directorate. This is the first part
of our brand new, live video interactive series. But we're gonna highlight some of S&T's
projects and get an opportunity to talk to one of the Program Managers in real-time.
So today, I am joined by Program Manager Darren Wilson. He's gonna talk to us about
Screen Adapt and Identify, which are two training capabilities that we have here at S&T.
But first, I want to kick things off by watching a quick video.
[Video Music playing]
Screeners Analyze thousands of images daily.
Anomalies may be unlikely, but the risk of a miss is high.
Screeners must become visual search experts by being
both effective and efficient. Screen Adapt provides a
personalized path to visual search expertise. Develop
core visual search skills faster through an individualized training path
that addresses skill deficiencies. Immediate feedback that keeps the trainee aware
of their progress and errors. Dynamically created combinations of
threat and bag images that keeps training fresh and unpredictable.
Screen Adapt uses a personalized training approach
based on visual search behavior and performance.
Eye tracking makes the visual search process observable to provide immediate
feedback. Eye tracking makes it possible to determine the root cause of visual
search errors. Training content is then changed
in real-time to address the identified skill deficiencies.
Screen adapt also allows instructors to review and manage the training process.
Upload new images to keep training relevant and up to
date and analyze training progress with training management tools.
Screen adapt. [To learn more about ScreenADAPT, please contact Darren P. Wilson - Program Manager
Science and Technology Directorate Darren.Wilson@hq.dhs.gov]
[Video and Music Ends]
Instead of just a high level overview of what screen adapt
can do. What I want to start by doing is just asking a few
questions then we can open it up to the audience. [Clears Throat] Excuse me. So Darren can you give
us an idea of what these technologies do and why they were developed?
[Darren] Absolutely, there's cross coming means
across the Homeland Security Enterprise and the law enforcement community
that have to do with visual search. Screen Adapt
is a new and innovative capability that leverages
the latest in training research and the latest in
eye tracking technology to maximize visual search skills.
It's core capabilities at this point are
advance x-ray image and masses training as well as
imposter detection training. [Host] Okay, and what organizations have developed these technologies?
Because S&T is really the research and development
directorate of the Homeland Security Department.
So who do you work with on these tehnologies?
[Darren] These projects were done in collaboration with
TSA, the office of training development,
the screeners at the individual airports,
federal security directors that were counting on to us
to come in and work with screeners. Give us access to
images and identify what was done in collaboration with Customs and Border Protection.
[Host] So we went in and it sounds like we asked what were the needs that they were seeing
as far as training capabilities and these are really
specific to that eye tracking need that we saw. Can you talk more about the
eye tracking capability? [Darren] Absolutely, so the eye tracking capability is
really key, because it gives us information that we really didn't have
before about screener performance. We can see
where the screener is looking. What scan pattern their using.
What their fixation times are and if they are applying a
scan pattern consistently and completely. More importantly
we can identify the root causes of errors. Meaning
of they miss a treat we can time out if they missed the
threat because they are making a scanning error or a recognition error.
A scanning error is when the screener looks at the image
but doesn't look at a particular area and that's why they
miss a threat. A recognition error is when they search
the image, look at a particular area where there's a threat and don't recognize
that it is a threat. That's important because depending on what type of
errors they are making, it requires a different type of training. If they are making
a scanning error, the system adapts to give them more of
your traditional exposure training. They can work on with
the trainer and applying that their scan pattern more consistently and
completely to make sure that their scan pattern covers the
entire image. If they are making a recognition error that takes a different type of training
which is a discrimination training which builds their mental
threat image library so that they can better recognize threat items and non threat items
moving forward. [Host] Excellent. So it's the difference between not seeing something
in let's say a persons bag versus not recognizing that oh that may be a blade
or that might be something that we definitely want to flag for an additional search. [Darren] Absolutely.
[Host] So before this technology was available, what was the training capability?
You know how is this meeting that demand for this new and innovative need?
[Darren] Well, I think that you know obviously
TSA does a great job at what they do, but we're trying to
put more tools in their toolbox. Give them more diagnostic
capabilities and leverage emerging technology.
Right not they do exposure training, which is looking at the image to find
the treats and the simulators
actually based on the actual check point systems that
they use. This system screen adapt is technology
diagnostic, because we focusing on the core visual search
skills and trying to improve those skills. So matter where
the technology goes, which type of machine that their using
it is impacting performance in a positive way, regardless
of technology. [Host] So this training capability can really be used
no matter what type of screening technology comes down the line someday. [Clears throat] Excuse me.
I want to go back to something you talked about. The
different types of errors and how the instructor knows what errors somebody is making.
That's hard to judge because so much of the screening is based on whats happening in somebodies head.
[Darren] Absolutely. [Host] So what type of information then does screen adapt then identify
provide the instructor, you know as far as how this trainee is performing?
[Darren] It gives, the eye tracker is able to
focus in on and then display back to the trainer and trainee
where they looked, how long they looked and what sequence they looked.
And that information coupled with the types of threats that
their missing. The level of difficulty of threats that they are missing are all
going to the adaptive nature of the system. If they are missing more
guns, then they are going to see more guns. If their missing more knives then they are going to see
more knives. ID's, ID components, other prohibited items.
It's pulling from a database where we scanned
the badge and the threats independently so we can have
infinite number of combinations of threats and banks to customize
to that individual trainees specific needs. [Host] Wow.
So they can do that almost instantaneously as somebody is taking this training and say you know your
missing a couple here, so I'm going to throw you some more so you get that better practice.
What was it like to try to develop that capability? [Darren] It's
definitely a group effort. We collaborated with all the
different groups within TSA to make it happen.
It's important to them to stay
on the cutting edge of technology and be testing up
new and innovative solutions. We have a situation where
did a [inteeligible] test that screened it out specifically
for x-ray image analysis training. Actually resulted in
screeners being able to clear bags faster,
clear bags with no threats faster, which
operationally would correlate to faster
operationally would correlate to faster [unintelligible].
Things that you would actually see at the check point in terms of efficiency.
The first fixation on actual threats was faster.
And the identification of threats was also faster,
without anyway of adversely effecting the effectiveness
of the screeners finding the the threats which is really critical. [Host] Absolutely, because we all just
want to get through the line faster. We want to make sure we're getting through the line safely.
When folks when they get to the airport they know that baggage being checked correctly
and accurately. So it sounds likes this is a great way to both speed up the line
for the lack of a better time, but also make sure that it's really well
while effectively screening for those things. So we have a quick question from
facebook. When will screen adapt and identify be used at airports?
[Darren] Well right now, we have systems deployed
at airports. About 50 systems in the training
effectiveness evaluation stage. We're collecting qualitative
and quantitative data on that larger training effectiveness
evaluation to be able to draw some broader conclusions
and extrapolate from the pilots that we've
did. Originally we tested the system with 115
screeners at 3 different airports that resulted in a 45%
increase in efficiency. So we're
really excited about the initial results, we're really excited about the expanded
training effectiveness evaluation at
six airports that TSA is currently conducting
and looking forward to the results that are coming back from that.
[Host] So in addition to that data both qualitative and quantitative, what kind of feedback are you getting from
people who have used this training? [Darren] The feedback
has been super positive. We have airports that are participating in the training effectiveness evaluation
that actually have requested to keep the systems, use them
as part of their training program. We've had
CBP actually after the training effecting
this with identifying actually
roll those identified systems right into training for our
new CBP officers. [Host] Oh wow. [Darren] So CBP has
is going to have 12 systems total that they are using at their
training academy down at the enforcement training center to train all
new CBP officers in the imposter identification task.
[Host] That's great. We have another question that we want to respond to.
What are the main motivations that led to this effort.
[Darren] I think they were always seeking to improve
the efficiency and effectiveness of
our screening checkpoints, but really improve the passenger experience
as well. If we can eliminate unnecessary secondary
searches that everybody experiences every once in a while
when their going through the airports, that is a huge win.
The more people that we can screen
the less the wait time is and the more efficient we
are at checkpoints. [Host] So this really benefits both the operators and the
american public in terms of more effective screening,
getting through the checkpoints faster, but also knowing that you are still safe getting through there?
[Darren] Absolutely! It also save those training organizations time
because you're able to bring new hires up to full
performance level faster and give the trainers
new diagnostic tools. We have after action review
screening gives information like, how did this
individual do this compared to their peers? How did they do as compared to
how they thought they did? How are they progressing through the training? What is their breakdown of
hits, misses, false alarms to really
tailor their training experience to meet their individual needs.
[Host] Thats great. We have another question. Will this technology be used for
large scale NII x-ray that ports are borders?
[Darren] We're exploring other options with
CBP. They do all sorts of
different screening when it comes to agriculture,
vehicles. We are looking at
applications beyond just x-ray image analysis and
the impostor detection
and looking to branching it out into other visual search
tasks like, suspicious behavior detection and pre-deciding indicators for
our law enforcement community. [Host] That's great! Another question just came in.
Do you see this as something to be used in daily operations in the field,
rather than only using this as part of training?
We've got a second part of the question
coming in. Check point environments is totally different
than classroom. [Darren] Absolutely and there is
all sorts of different other variables that go into
the checkpoint screening environment. Whether your talking about a federal building
people going into a federal buiding. Whether your talking
about CBP checkpoint or a
TSA checkpoint. There are lots of different variables that
go into all those things. In addition to the non biology
of the different technologies that are used.
The basic visual search skills and try to maximize the
efficiency and effectiveness in that core task that
again is across the board in lots of different tasks.
Whether your checking ID's and verifying that the individual in front of you is the individual
on the ID or your looking at x-ray images or your
scanning a checkpoint looking for suspicious behavior.
[Host] So I think this raises the question about talking about next steps and what else this could be used
for, but also in terms in customization to meet these different types of needs.
How customizable is this training? [Darren] That's
something that we wanted to do from the beginning is be able to have
individual organizations, whether their federal, state, local government organizations
be able to customize their threat in the database to meet the needs
of the stream of commerce, whatever that may be
and the commonly emerging threats. If there's something that
the public would see in the latest news cycle. A battle an emerging threat
the different training organizations at the airport level can
load those emerging threats right into the threat image
database and start training their screeners
that day in real time as the threats are emerging. [Host] That's amazing.
We have another question from facebook. In learning from this technology
is TSA loosing anything in the way of human instruction, how do
managers balance their own instruction with the tech is telling its trainees?
Well the on the job training is a huge
part of the way TSA are trained. This is
exclusive to the classroom and to the
current monthly training and
current monthly training and part of the initial training at
the new TSA training academy, but what we are looking to
do is definitely is maintain that approach that TSA
has where they do classroom training and then they do
extensive on the job training where the TSA is
shadowed by a monitor and getting those
lessons learned, that expertise from the trainee
and from the trainer that their paired with. Another thing
that we incorporate into the training was extensive
knowledge and lessons learned from the very best of the
TSA workforce. We spent some time out in the field doing cognitive walk throughs
and structured user interviews with the top 1 to 3%
of screeners that hardly miss a threat in training and
then we turned that into a special training module for ID's and ID componets.
So really trying to leverage the expertise of
our training workflows. [ Host] So this incorporates a lot of then the user input in terms of
what should people be looking for? Talking about the top 1 or 3%
of screeners. Getting their input about, this is what I know,
this is how I approach this. Really getting a human input
into this training so it's not purely just a technology focus to
the facebook users point about melding a
human-based instruction, but also a technology
technical capability. [Darren] Absolutely! This is where it is just about giving
taking advantage of emerging technology, taking advantage of the latest in training research,
visual search research done by the larger community
and giving the trainers more tools in their toolbox.
Everybody needs a minimum performance level of course
but some people are predisposed to being good
at that screening test and by distributing a capability
to the workforce to give them these extra tools can increase
national security by bringing everybody's individual performance level up.
[Host] Awesome. So how does this apply to looking at ID's?
[Darren] So this, the ID or identify
portion of the system that capability
specifically looks at how
in this case, CBP officers were looking at
individuals and trying to go through their progressions
that their taught. You know, eyes to ears, nose to chin
those sorts of things to verify that the individual
in front of you is the individual in the ID.
So the correction itself could be real,
could be real but altered, could be fake or
could be real but not the person in front of you.
What we did in a training effectiveness evaluation for the identified portion
was we worked with CBP to
pilot the system and it resulted in
those officers being able to, not only in the class time that
they have being able to actual look at more image pairs,
because they are able to make decisions faster with more confidence. [Host] Oh okay.
[Darren] But they are also able to detect more impostors. So it actually was
an efficiency increase in that they are getting now in the same amount of time being able to
look at more image pairs and get more training in
the same amount of time, but also actually improve their
performance in impostor detections. [Host] So really, if
we're increasing effectiveness and efficiency. Not
sacrificing one for the other. [Darren] Absolutely. [Host] We have another question from facebook.
Do TSA's have to wear something special for eye tracking?
[Darren] No, the eye tracking technology is
totally unobtrusive. It takes just a few seconds to
actually calibrate and set-up. They look like
a little ball that hooks to the bottom of the display
and so that with a short calibration limit. Again it's meant
to be used with or without an instructor present.
They calibrate the system to start tracking
their eyes and their often running into their training [unintelligible]. [Host] She almost
looks like a heat map of where somebody looked.
[Darren] Yeah, the hardware itself is a eye tracking, its a small device that
is attached to the bottom of the display. So nothing that you actually wear.
It's tracking your eyes from the bottom of the display.
It can be in a single or double configuration
a lot of federal buildings use a single screen configuration.
Our current set-up at TSA checkpoints is with dual screen
configurations so it is offered in both configurations.
[Host] Another question, can organizations other than TSA or CBP
use this software? [Darren] Absolutely! The system then is
available to all federal, state and local governments. We are also pursuing
a release to other
private organizations, cruise lines for instance.
And of course collaborating with our other
governments that's we have bilateral agreements with.
So it is available to all state, local, county and other
federal organizations as well. [Host] So how do they get access to the training is it on the web?
Do they email somebody? How would you recommend if someone is interested in this they go about
clearing it? [Darren] First I'd respond
by going to HQ.dhs.gov, I think is
gonna come up on the page there. You can reach out to us
we will follow up with you on inquiries about using
the system for your specific application and
set-up a demo of each of the capabilities if anyone is interested.
[Host] Good and more information is about this tool is available on
S&T's website. If you go onto our website we have a blog,
what we call "snap shot". There are several written pieces you can use to learn about this program
about this project. Kinda diving into a couple more
questions. I know we have talked a little about where this technology could go and one of the exciting things about
being in S&T is you are never quite sure where something is going to end up in the future,
but if you had to kind of project after different iterations or
going down some other uses. What would you like to see this technology become?
You know 5-10 years from now? [Darren] I think as
we move forward we want to offer additional capabilities,
like I was saying for suspicious behavior detection and
pre-deciding indicators other tasks that are at their core visual search tasks.
That could leverage the eye tracker and the adaptive training.
But even the adaptive training capabilities itself, the other core modules that we
developed. The different methods of trainings. Exposure versus discrimination training.
And the customizable database of threats
could be put into a web enabling implementation. So we
could have even those organizations that don't have dedicated training rooms to have
a single or double screen set-up
that they will be able to access it over the web and
have the distributing capabilities to a workforce. [Host] That would be great. So really it's
widely available, making it a very effective, you know
cost effective training option. [Darren] Yes, absolutely.
[Host] Great, unless there are anymore questions is there anything else that you want people to know about
screen adapt and identify? [Darren] I think that its a new
innovative capability. I think that it's definitely worth checking out if you are
in that homeland security enterprise federal organization
security organization, local, state
law enforcement. Any organization thats doing ID
verification that is looking for impostors and especially doing check
point screening is definitely something that could
impact the operational security of
your particular scenario. [Host] Great. So again please reach out if you have any questions
we're going to leave this thread open, so if you do have questions we want to answer by text
in the days to come. Thank you for joining us for our first Tech Talk and be sure to stay tuned
for us on facebook and twitter to find out what our next subject is going to be.
Thanks a lot Darren. [Darren] No problem. [Host] Alright, thank you.