Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Scent Detection

The German authorities are compiling a database of human scents to track down possible violent protesters at the G8 summit in June, local media report. The method, once used by East Germany's secret police, the Stasi, involves collecting scent samples in advance from selected targets. The scents are then passed to police equipped with sniffer dogs who can pick the individuals out amidst a crowd.

Pretty amazing stuff, considering that the dog has to remember a scent, then go through crowds of people and pick out the one that they have been assigned to find. That requires a very special, intelligent dog. Few dogs would have this kind of capability. [And no, I don't think this is an immoral use of police resources. We are talking about violent protesters. If you want to effect political change, then use PERSUASION, not violence. Funny thing, it was the Communists that used this technique against those who promote democracy, and now the Communists are the ones getting the same technique used back against them, while they still hate democracy.]

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