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Gothamist would totally buy the Transformer for this: A Metrocard vending that can detect explosives! The Daily News reports that companies have developed Metrocard machines that can "detect riders who have recently handled explosives" - and then the machine would send an alert (take a picture, note what substance was detected) to authorities - and it can be wired to lock turnstiles. Wow - just think of what it'll do when people use stolen credit cards! The MTA says it's awaiting the results of testing, but the Daily News says the agency is interesting in the "merging of bomb-detecting, MetroCard and communications technology." Yes, it would probably be very helpful, but we'd be pretty worried when it didn't work - you know, like the machine detected that 75-cent sugar doughnut on our fingers and letting the police know we were off our diet. But it won't be too long until the MTA gets proposals for swipers and turnstiles that also detect explosives.
Cubic, one of the companies working on the technology, says the old Metrocard machines can be retrofitted to include the technology... we hope they will put special camouflage decals on them, to show they are fighting terror. And earlier this week, Metrocard machines weren't able to accept credit or ATM cards for a spell.
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Lemme get this straight. This machine is supposed to be trusted to detect exlosives (!), yet it can't accurately detect a new dollar bill repeatedly inserted into the cash slot.
Great, Not only will it go down on a Monday Morning, but snap a photo in case of a false Positive and have the police go nuts chasing leads..
I don't know if this is in the article linked above, but on NY1 this morning they said the if they detected explosives the machines could also "lock the turnstiles" until police arrived (presumably the terrorist will be kind enough to wait around and won't risk getting a ticket by jumping over the turnstile). This sounds like a joke but the sad thing is we're spending millions of dollars on it.
Does anyone else have that moment in Robocop where the machine says, "You have 10 seconds to comply" echoing through their minds...or is it just me?
I think it is time to upgrade these machines:
http://gearlog.com/blogs/gearlog/archive/2006/03/07/7222.aspx
I just hope they don't wire it to detect my weed!
People planning to blow shit up would just buy the card before hand. This is a waste of technology.
The turnstyle should do the sniffing. (I don't know if that's possible but it's the only thing that makes sense)
Even if they use fairly robust technology, such as an ion mobility spectrometer, I think someone will retire on the lawsuit settlement after some poor soul with a heart condition sets it off after applying his nitroglycerin ointment or handing his tablets in the morning.
Heck, there's a fair possibility that the saltpeter in the "sensitive teeth" toothpastes might be enough for a decent nitrate reading, if one was sloppy about washing their hands after brushing.