International News Items - January 2005

Digital Technology Charts Military Physique

Ottawa, December 22, 2004 (The Ottawa Citizen, as reported by Sara Staples) - Canadian troops are stripping off their uniforms in a precedent-setting experiment that could ultimately provide the most detailed digital snapshot ever taken for such a large segment of Canada's population.

Technology that gathers ultra-precise measurements for military uniforms is being rolled out at bases across Canada . Troops, clad only in their underwear, step inside an 2.5-meter-high booth, click on a joystick and wait several seconds while two cameras snap a digital image and software converts it into 3D. Databases containing body measurements for uniforms will be networked, the statistics aggregated and compared. The result will be a historic analysis of the Canadian Forces' average physique.

The "Body Scanning System for 21st Century," or "BoSS-21" units -- jointly developed by the Defense Department and a University of Toronto imaging researcher -- is already in use at bases in Trenton, Esquimalt, B.C., Edmonton, and St. Jean, Que., where it captures 37 measurements in 40 seconds.

Eight more systems will be in place at bases by 2008.

Portability will transform more than just the complicated business of provisioning 200 uniform styles for 60,000 members of the Canadian navy, army and air force. "You'll be able to answer questions like, 'Is the navy a certain size?', and contrast that with the army (from) statistics about the size and shape ... ," said the device's co-creator Shi Yin, a 43-year-old electrical engineer, and chief executive of VisImage Systems Inc.

Measurements will be 100 percent accurate, and instantly retrievable from anywhere in the country.

Military planners will be able to deduce information to improve decision-making in a range of situations. Knowing how thin or obese soldiers are from different bases might lead to changes in menu design, for example.

"Or, you might need different kinds of garments in Edmonton rather than Victoria, where it's more temperate, so you'll be able to quantify how cold it is and figure out if you'll need more fleece, and if so how much more," Mr. Yin said.

U.S. and French militaries have developed their own body scanners, but at less than $50,000, Mr. Yin's is one-fifth the price. It's the only one with a cubicle for privacy, and has the most sophisticated artificial intelligence, he said.

The strongest interest in such technology outside the military comes from government health officials, who see scanning as a cheaper, error-free way to take a physical census of citizens.

Size UK and Size USA, studies carried out by the governments of Britain and United States in 2001 and 2002, scanned thousands of volunteers using equipment developed for the garment industry and found astounding physical changes in the population, including rising rates of obesity.

Brazil , China , Korea , Australia , France and Mexico are among nations now planning, or conducting, similar health-oriented projects. The European Commission wants to use scanning data to standardize rules for clothing sizes across member states. Body scanners have also started showing up in commercial use at some retail stores in New York , as gimmicks to market better-tailored clothes.

Old Uniforms to Get New Use

Philadelphia, PA, December 17, 2004 (Inquirer, as reported by Thomas J. Gibbons Jr.) - Some police officers in Liberia could soon be patrolling in used Philadelphia police uniforms, thanks to a partnership between Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson and the chief of Liberia's national police, Col. Christian Massoaquoi.

Massoaquoi, 50, has been visiting with various police executives this month during a visit to the United States, and he attended the recent International Association of Chiefs Of Police convention in California. A 23-year police veteran, Massoaquoi spent some time here and accompanied highway patrol officers as they worked the city.

"At some point, I became so emotional, I almost felt that I was part of the team and almost wanted to just get out there," Massoaquoi said of the nighttime ride-along.

After Massoaquoi told Johnson that his equipment-starved force of about 5,000, which is responsible for patrolling 2,000 square miles, could use clothing, the commissioner agreed to round up old equipment.

Both men were at the Police Academy yesterday, where the colonel watched the department's Comstat meeting, a weekly gathering of police commanders to share data during a computerized mapping and analysis of crime.

Afterward, Johnson said that he planned to alert active and retiring officers that Liberia can use their old equipment. "I welcome the partnership," Johnson said as Massoaquoi beamed. "Not only will we be partners, we will be friends."