'The smell of fear': feasibility study on the correlation of human smell and abnormal behaviour

该提案的目的是探索一种新颖和全面的方法，通过一系列短期研究活动，让拥有全部技能基础的专家参与进来，这些活动在主题和方法上相互联系，但在性质上高度冒险和高度投机的领域，旨在为更好地和非侵入性地监测安全应用程序提供有效的手段。先前的研究表明，人类的气味可以提供有关其发送者的相关生物信息，这种方法的一个关键目标是将对这种类型的嗅觉交流的分析与相关的生理和行为指标融合在一起。当另外两个主要的“感官”，即视觉和听觉在功能上受到限制时，这尤其显示出优势，最常见的情况是在安全检查中。提出的跨学科方法解决了对人类“恐惧”的检测--将恐惧信息素作为关键的生理指标，并将这些信息与人类的异常行为联系起来。虽然用这些术语来描述很简单，但只有当从化学、物理、工程到社会科学和心理学的各种因素有效地结合在一起，而不是孤立地看待时，所设想的真正成功才是可能的。这项工作的目标将是能够确定这种检测这些人类警报信号的综合方法的可行性和有效性：应用于评估个人的压力状态，并在安全关键的背景下解释这一点。该应用领域将解决基于这一方法的新方法的可行性，以便在最大限度地减少对日常操作的干扰的情况下，在公共场所，如机场、火车站或临近伦敦奥运会的地方，快速准确地识别犯罪嫌疑人或恐怖分子嫌疑人。

The proposal has been designed to explore a novel and holistic approach which will engage experts across the full spectrum of their skills-base, through a suite of short-term research activities that are linked in theme and approach, yet are highly adventurous and in areas highly speculative in nature, aiming to provide an effective means for better and non-invasive human monitoring for security applications. Prior studies have shown that human odours can provide relevant biological information about their 'sender' and a key target of this approach is the fusion of the analysis of this type of olfactory communication with associated physiological and behavioural indications. This shows advantages particularly when the other two major 'senses', i.e. the visual and acoustic, are functionally restricted, most frequently the case in security screening. The interdisciplinary approach proposed addresses the detection of human 'fear' - focusing on fear pheromone as a key physiological indicator and correlating the information with human abnormal behaviour. Although simple to describe in these terms, real success envisaged is only possible when factors across the spectrum from the chemical, physical, engineering to the social sciences and psychology are effectively integrated, rather than viewed in isolation. The work will target as an outcome being able to determine the viability and efficacy of such an integrated approach to the detection of these human alarm signals: applied in assessing the stress status of an individual and interpreting this in a security-critical context. The application domain will allow addressing the feasibility of novel methods based on this approach for the rapid and accurate identification of criminal or terrorist suspects in public areas, e.g. at airports, railway stations or approaching the London Olympics, with minimum disruption to routine operations.