Journal articles on the topic 'Video display terminals – Safety measures'

A survey was administered to two large groups of employees, one a group of health care employees and the other a group of employees from a large insurance firm. The survey was used to determine whether video display terminal (VDT) operators experience greater psychosomatic distress, job tension, job dissatisfaction, and strain than nonoperators or employees who operate VDTs infrequently. After controlling for demographic factors, tenure, and role strain variables, findings suggest that hours of VDT use has an impact on employee well-being, though role strain was more consistently related to outcome measures.

The occupational use of video display terminals (VDTs) has been associated with the increasing incidence of upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders, often called cumulative trauma disorders. To guide clinical and policy decisions about the prevention and treatment of these VDT related disorders, valid and economic measures of total daily VDT use and VDT related job tasks such as data entry or editing will be important. In this study of newspaper reporters and copy editors (n=83), VDT use was measured with employee self reports and by sampling the work behaviors of a subsample of employees. Behavioral sampling estimated VDT use as a characteristic of the job as opposed to a characteristic of individual employee performance. Overall, the two techniques of measuring occupational VDT use compared favorably, with the exception that self reported hours of VDT use tended to exceed the hours of use estimated by behavioral observation for employees who were younger and those who reported greater job demands. The findings suggest that behavioral sampling is a valid technique for estimating VDT use as a job characteristic.

This study evaluated six anti-glare filters for video display terminals. Subjective evaluations were made of the brightness, sharpness, contrast, color, glare and preference for each filter, as well as objective measurements of luminance, MTFA, contrast and glare. Overall, participants preferred anti-reflection coated, circular polarizer and nylon mesh filters to an etched plastic filter and to no filter. Subjective ratings of color, glare, and sharpness were found to contribute most to ratings of preference. Subjective and objective ratings of brightness, contrast, glare and sharpness were found to be moderately correlated. The focus of this work was to understand the relationship between certain physical variables and subjective measures of the effects of anti-glare technologies.

There are more concerns about possible health effects related to electromagnetic fields from computer monitors and other video display terminals because of the widespread using of computers in laboratories, offices and internet halls. This research aims to detect the effect of electromagnetic field radiations in these halls and laboratories and study the successful ways of minimizing its negative health effect on human health. The research has been performed on both the mathematical calculations and practical measurements. The obtaining results show that the practical measurements are consistent with the mathematical calculations results. Comparison of these results with the safety standard guideline limits shows that they are within the acceptable espousing limits recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and that means there is no health risk from exposure to these fields if the exposure is within the acceptable limits

Extraordinary and unprecedented public health measures have been implemented to contain the ongoing spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. There is paramount importance of cooperation and population engagement in reducing disease infection rates and relieving an outbreak’s burden on society. The civil society’s engagement may be achieved through disaster education interventions. In this cross-sectional study, a pre-post questionnaire was used to investigate the impact of a brief educational intervention on knowledge, perceived knowledge, perceived safety, and the individual resilience of the population relating to the COVID-19 outbreak. The results of the study display the benefits of the educational intervention to include a significant overall increase in all examined variables. The study also reviewed the overall trust of the public concerning the main responding authorities, as well as practices concerning protective measures for COVID-19. This study demonstrates that educational interventions, such as the brief video, provide an easily implementable design and effective means for educating and empowering the public and should, thus, be considered as a component of future outbreak responses.

Participatory ergonomics is a flexible means for the achievement of many diverse goals in turbulent technological environments. It is a macroergonomic approach to the implementation of technology in organizational systems which requires that end-users be highly involved in developing and implementing the technology. The notion of participation offers the promise of tremendous potential gains for the organization, the worker, and even the economic well-being of the greater society. Such pervasive and important technological innovations as the use of computers and their concomitant video display terminals can, in spite of their usefulness, lead to many occupational health and safety problems. Cumulative trauma disorders appear to be an associated dysfunction in modern industry, and effective health and safety solutions to many of these problems are highly important, both to the organization and especially to the people in it. It is proposed that the use of participation and worker involvement in the solution of such problems is a powerful and promising tool. There is no one best way to employ worker participation. It is contingent upon the nature of the problem itself, the work system, the job design presently in place, the environment in which the work is done, the training of the worker, and a myriad of other variables. From the available empirical evidence, a participation typology is postulated. The successful implementation of participatory ergonomics and other participatory arrangements requires the empowerment and enablement of people to make decisions concerning their work and to implement and evaluate them. Several participatory approaches to worker involvement are presented which address work system and job design factors, design of the work environment, and training of VDT operators. These approaches are discussed in the context of a systems approach to the prevention of WMSDs. The reduction and/or prevention of cumulative trauma disorders such as work-related musculoskeletal disorders is a matter of great concern in modern organizational life, both from the point of view of productivity concerns and also from that of the humanization of work. The solution of occupational health and safety problems will not only lead to increased organizational effectiveness, but should help provide for a far better realization of human potential.

The FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany saw the largest display of domestic security since 1945. More than 250 000 police officers from the state and federal police, 7000 military guards, 20 000 private security contractors and an unknown number of intelligence service officers operated in the 12 host cities during the four-week event. In addition, more than 20 000 volunteers took part in security and safety measures, constituting what have become known as ‘pop-up armies’. Surveillance technologies were deployed, including but not limited to airborne warning and control system planes (AWACS), a variety of security robots, video surveillance cameras and radio frequency identification chips (RFID). Data banks stored more than 250 000 personal data files of FIFA employees and another 10 million of those persons applying for tickets. The paper first describes how, since the early 20th century, FIFA has been embracing neo-liberalism as a ‘neo-communitarian entrepreneur’. Secondly, it analyses how FIFA enabled itself to set the preconditions for candidate and host cities to carry out the event. Thirdly, it develops the concept of ‘legacy’ in order to allow for an understanding of the World Cup’s positive and negative impacts for all stakeholders involved. Fourthly, it examines the 2006 World Cup in Germany as a sports-related ‘security assemblage’, deciphering why parts of the assemblage were dismantled whereas others remained after the World Cup was over. Finally, it draws some conclusions about the role of FIFA as an incubator for a ‘sustained securitisation’ of host and post-host cities.

Background: A recent National Highway Traffic & Safety Administration (NHTSA) report states that 10% of fatal crashes and 18% of injury crashes were reported as distraction-affected crashes. In that same year, 3,179 people were killed and an estimated 431,000 injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers, many of which involved secondary visual displays (NHTSA, 2016). Augmented reality (AR) head-up displays (HUD) promise to be less distractive than traditional in-vehicle displays since they do not take drivers’ eyes off the road (Gabbard, Fitch, & Kim, 2014). However, empirical studies have reported possible negative consequences of AR HUDs, in part, due to AR graphics’ salience (Sharfi & Shinar, 2014), frequent changes (Wolffsohn, McBrien, Edgar, & Stout, 1998), and visual clutter (Burnett & Donkor, 2012). Moreover, current in-vehicle display assessment methods which are based on eye-off-road time measures (NHTSA, 2012), cannot capture this unique challenge. Objective: This work aims to propose a new method for the assessment of AR HUDs by quantifying both positive (informing drivers) and negative (distracting drivers) consequences of AR HUDs which might not be captured by current in-vehicle display assessment methods. Method: We proposed a new way of quantifying the distraction potential of AR HUDs by measuring driver situation awareness with operational improvements on the situation awareness global assessment technique (Endsley, 2012) to suit AR usability evaluations. A human-subject experiment was conducted in a driving simulator to apply the proposed method and to evaluate two AR HUD interfaces for pedestrian collision warning. The AR warning interfaces were prototyped by the augmented video technique (Soro, Rakotonirainy, Schroeter, & Wollstdter, 2014). Twenty-four participants drove while interacting with different types of AR pedestrian collision warning interfaces (no warning, bounding box, and virtual shadow). Drivers’ situation awareness, confidence, and workload were measured and compared to the no warning condition. Results: Only one of the warning interface designs, the virtual shadow (Kim, Isleib, & Gabbard, 2016), improved driver situation awareness about pedestrians which were cued by the AR HUD, not affecting situation awareness about other environmental elements which were not augmented by the HUD. The experiment also showed drivers’ overconfidence bias while interacting with the bounding box which is another warning interface design. The empirical user study did not provide any evidence for reduced driver workload when AR warnings were given. Conclusion: Our initial human-subject study demonstrated a potential of the proposed method in quantifying both positive and negative consequences of AR HUDs on driver cognitive processes. More importantly, the experiment showed that AR interfaces can have both positive and negative consequences on driver situation awareness depending upon how we design perceptual forms of graphical elements. Application: The proposed assessment methods for AR HUDs can inform not only comparative evaluation among design alternatives but also assist in incrementally improving design iterations to better support drivers’ information needs, situation awareness, and in turn, performance, and safety.

For improving the generality, expandability and accuracy, the general embedded intelligent monitoring system of tower crane is developed. The system can be applied to different kinds of tower cranes running at any lifting ratio, can be initialized using U disk with the information of tower crane, and fit the lifting torque curve automatically. In dangerous state, the system can sent out alarm signals with sounds and lights, and cut off power by sending signals to PLC through communication interface RS485. When electricity goes off suddenly, the system can record the real-time operating information automatically, and store them in a black box, which can be taken as the basis for confirming the accident responsibility.In recent years, tower cranes play a more and more important role in the construction of tall buildings, in other construction fields are also more widely used. For the safety of tower cranes, various monitors have been developed for monitoring the running information of crane tower [1-8]. These monitors can’t eliminate the errors caused by temperature variations automatically. The specific tower crane’s parameters such as geometric parameters, alarming parameters, lifting ratio, lifting torque should be embedded into the core program, so a monitor can only be applied to a specific type of tower crane, lack of generality and expansibility.For improving the defects of the existing monitors, a general intelligent monitoring modular system of tower crane with high precision is developed, which can initialize the system automatically, eliminate the temperature drift and creep effect of sensor, and store power-off data, which is the function of black box.Hardware design of the monitoring systemThe system uses modularized design mode. These modules include embedded motherboard module, sensor module, signal processing module, data acquisition module, power module, output control module, display and touch screen module. The hardware structure is shown in figure 1. Figure 1 Hardware structure of the monitoring systemEmbedded motherboard module is the core of the system. The motherboard uses the embedded microprocessor ARM 9 as MCU, onboard SDRAM and NAND Flash. Memory size can be chosen according to users’ needs. SDRAM is used for running procedure and cache data. NAND Flash is used to store embedded Linux operating system, applications and operating data of tower crane. Onboard clock with rechargeable batteries provides the information of year, month, day, hour, minute and second. This module provides time tag for real-time operating data. Most interfaces are taken out by the plugs on the embedded motherboard. They include I/O interface, RS232 interface, RS485 interface, USB interface, LCD interface, Audio interface, Touch Screen interface. Pull and plug structure is used between all interfaces and peripheral equipments, which not only makes the system to be aseismatic, but also makes its configuration flexible. Watch-dog circuit is designed on the embedded motherboard, which makes the system reset to normal state automatically after its crash because of interference, program fleet, or getting stuck in an infinite loop, so the system stability is improved greatly. In order to store operating data when power is down suddenly, the power-down protection circuit is designed. The saved data will be helpful to repeat the accident process later, confirm the accident responsibility, and provide the basis for structure optimization of tower crane.Sensor module is confirmed by the main parameters related to tower crane’s security, such as lifting weight, lifting torque, trolley luffing, lifting height, rotary angle and wind speed. Axle pin shear load cell is chosen to acquire lifting weight signals. Potentiometer accompanied with multi-stopper or incremental encoder is chosen to acquire trolley luffing and lifting height signals. Potentiometer accompanied with multi-stopper or absolute photoelectric encoder is chosen to acquire rotary angle signals. Photoelectric sensor is chosen to acquire wind speed signals. The output signals of these sensors can be 0~5V or 4~20mA analog signals, or digital signal from RS485 bus. The system can choose corresponding signal processing method according to the type of sensor signal, which increases the flexibility on the selection of sensors, and is helpful for the users to expand monitoring objects. If the acquired signal is analog signal, it will be processed with filtering, isolation, anti-interference processing by signal isolate module, and sent to A/D module for converting into digital signals, then transformed into RS485 signal by the communication protocol conversion device according to Modbus protocol. If the acquired signal is digital signal with RS485 interface, it can be linked to RS485 bus directly. All the acquired signals are sent to embedded motherboard for data processing through RS485 bus.The data acquisition module is linked to the data acquisition control module on embedded motherboard through RS485 interface. Under the control of program, the system inquires the sensors at regular intervals, and acquires the operating data of crane tower. Median filter technology is used to eliminate interferences from singularity signals. After analysis and processing, the data are stored in the database on ARM platform.Switch signal can be output to relay module or PLC from output control module through RS485 bus, then each actuator will be power on or power off according to demand, so the motion of tower crane will be under control.Video module is connected with motherboard through TFT interface. After being processed, real-time operating parameters are displayed on LCD. The working time, work cycle times, alarm, overweight and ultar-torque information will be stored into database automatically. For meeting the needs of different users, the video module is compatible with 5.7, 8.4 or 10.4 inches of color display.Touch screen is connected with embedded motherboard by touch screen interface, so human machine interaction is realized. Initialization, data download, alarm information inquire, parameter modification can be finished through touch screen.Speaker is linked with audio interface, thus alarm signals is human voice signal, not harsh buzz.USB interface can be linked to conventional U disk directly. Using U disk, users can upload basic parameters of tower crane, initialize system, download operating data, which provides the basis for the structural optimization and accident analysis. Software design of the monitoring systemAccording to the modular design principle, the system software is divided into grading encryption module, system update module, parameter settings module, calibration module, data acquisition and processor module, lifting parameters monitoring module, alarm query module, work statistics module.Alarm thresholds are guarantee for safety operation of the tower crane. Operating data of tower crane are the basis of service life prediction, structural optimization, accident analysis, accident responsibility confirmation. According to key field, the database is divided into different security levels for security requirements. Key fields are grade encryption with symmetrical encryption algorithm, and data keys are protected with elliptic curve encryption algorithm. The association is realized between the users’ permission and security grade of key fields, which will ensure authorized users with different grades to access the equivalent encrypted key fields. The user who meets the grade can access equivalent encrypted database and encrypted key field in the database, also can access low-grade encrypted key fields. This ensures the confidentiality and integrity of key data, and makes the system a real black box.The system is divided into operating mode and management mode in order to make the system toggle between the two states conveniently. The default state is operating mode. As long as the power is on, the monitoring system will be started by the system guide program, and monitor the operating state of the tower crane. The real-time operating data will be displayed on the display screen. At the dangerous state, warning signal will be sent to the driver through voice alarm and light alarm, and corresponding control signal will be output to execution unit to cut off relevant power for tower crane’s safety.By clicking at the mode switch button on the initial interface, the toggle can be finished between the management mode and the operating mode. Under the management mode, there are 4 grades encrypted modes, namely the system update, alarm query, parameter setting and data query. The driver only can browse relevant information. Ordinary administrator can download the alarm information for further analysis. Senior administrator can modify the alarm threshold. The highest administrator can reinitialize system to make it adapt to different types of tower crane. Only browse and download function are available in the key fields of alarm inquiry, anyone can't modify the data. The overload fields in alarm database are encrypted, only senior administrator can browse. The sensitive fields are prevented from being tampered to the great extent, which will provide the reliable basis for the structural optimization and accident analysis. The system can be initialized through the USB interface. Before initialization, type, structural parameters, alarm thresholds, control thresholds, lifting torque characteristics of tower crane should be made as Excel files and then converted to XML files by format conversion files developed specially, then the XML files are downloaded to U disk. The U disk is inserted into USB interface, then the highest administrator can initialize the system according to hints from system. After initialization, senior administrator can modify structural parameters, alarm thresholds, control thresholds by clicking on parameters setting menu. So long as users can make the corresponding excel form, the system initialization can be finished easily according to above steps and used for monitoring. This is very convenient for user.Tower crane belongs to mobile construction machinery. Over time, sensor signals may have some drift, so it is necessary to calibrate the system regularly for guaranteeing the monitoring accuracy. Considering the tower is a linear elastic structure, sensors are linear sensors,in calibration linear equation is used:y=kx+b (1)where x is sample value of sensor, y is actual value. k, b are calibration coefficients, and are calculated out by two-points method. At running mode, the relationship between x and y is:y=[(y1-y0)/(x1-x0)](x-x0)+y0 (2)After calibration, temperature drift and creep can be eliminated, so the monitoring accuracy is improved greatly.Lifting torque is the most important parameter of condition monitoring of tower crane. Comparing the real-time torque M(L) with rated torque Me(L), the movement of tower crane can be controlled under a safe status.M (L)= Q (L)×L (3)Where, Q(L)is actual lifting weight, L is trolley luffing. Me(L) = Qe(L)×L (4)Where, Q e(L) is rated lifting weight. The design values of rated lifting weight are discrete, while trolley luffing is continuous. Therefore there is a rated lifting weight in any position. According to the mechanical characteristics of tower crane, the rated lifting weight is calculated out at any point by 3 spline interpolation according to the rated lifting weight at design points.When lifting weight or lifting torque is beyond rated value, alarm signal and control signal will be sent out. The hoist motor with high, medium and low speed is controlled by the ratio of lifting weight Q and maximum lifting weight Qmax,so the hoisting speed can be controlled automatically by the lifting weight. The luffing motor with high and low speed is controlled by the ratio of lifting torque M and rated lifting torque Me. Thus the luffing speed can be controlled by the lifting torque automatically. The flow chart is shown in figure 2. Fig. 2 real-time control of lifting weight and lifting torqueWhen accidents take place, power will be off suddenly. It is vital for identifying accident liability to record the operating data at the time of power-off. If measures are not taken to save the operating data, the relevant departments is likely to shirk responsibility. In order to solve the problem, the power-off protection module is designed. The module can save the operating data within 120 seconds automatically before power is off suddenly. In this 120 seconds, data is recorded every 0.1 seconds, and stores in a 2D array with 6 rows 1200 columns in queue method. The elements of the first line are the recent time (year-month-day-hour-minute-second), the elements of the second line to sixth line are lifting weight, lifting torque, trolley luffing, lifting height and wind speed in turn. The initial values are zero, when a set of data are obtained, the elements in the first column are eliminated, the elements in the backward columns move frontwards, new elements are filled into the last column of the array, so the array always saves the operating data at the recent 120 seconds. In order to improve the real-time property of the response, and to extend the service life of the nonvolatile memory chip EEPROM-93C46, the array is cached in volatile flip SDRAM usually. So long as power-off signal produces, the array will be shift to EEPROM, at once.In order to achieve the task, the external interruption thread and the power-off monitoring thread of program is set up, the power-off monitoring thread of program is the highest priority. These two threads is idle during normal operation. When power is off, the power-off monitoring thread of program can be executed immediately. When power-off is monitored by power-off control circuit, the external interruption pins produces interrupt signal. The ARM microprocessor responds to external interrupt request, and wakes up the processing thread of external interruption, then sets synchronized events as informing state. After receiving the synchronized events, the data cached in SDRAM will be written to EEPROM in time.ConclusionThe general intelligence embedded monitoring system of tower crane, which can be applicable to various types of tower crane operating under any lifting rates, uses U disk with the information of the tower crane to finish the system initialization and fits the lifting torque curve automatically. In dangerous state, the system will give out the voice and light alarm, link with the relay or PLC by the RS485 communication interface, and cut off the power. When power is down suddenly, the instantaneous operating data can be recorded automatically, and stored in a black box, which can be taken as the proof for identifying accident responsibility. The system has been used to monitor the "JiangLu" series of tower cranes successfully, and achieved good social and economic benefits.AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to thank China Natural Science Foundation(50975289), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(20100471229), Hunan science & technology plan, Jianglu Machinery & Electronics Co. Ltd for funding this work.Reference Leonard Bernold. Intelligent Technology for Crane Accident Prevention. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 1997, 9: 122~124.Gu Lichen,Lei Peng,Jia Yongfeng. Tower crane' monitor and control based on multi-sensor. Journal of Vibration, Measurement and Diagnosis. 2006, 26(SUPPL.): 174-178.Wang Ming,Zhang Guiqing,Yan Qiao,et, al. Development of a novel black box for tower crane based on an ARM-based embedded system. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Automation and Logistics. 2007: 82-87.Wang Renqun, Yin Chenbo, Zhang Song, et, al. Tower Crane Safety Monitoring and Control System Based on CAN Bus. Instrument Techniques and Sensor. 2010(4): 48-51.Zheng Conghai,Li Yanming,Yang Shanhu,et, al. Intelligent Monitoring System for Tower Crane Based on BUS Architecture and Cut IEEE1451 Standard. Computer Measurement & Control. 2010, 18, (9): 1992-1995.Yang Yu,Zhenlian Zhao,Liang Chen. Research and Design of Tower Crane Condition Monitoring and Fault Diagnosis System. 2010 Proceedings of International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Computational Intelligence. 2010: 405-408.Yu Yang, Chen Liang, Zhao Zhenlian. Research and design of tower crane condition monitoring and fault diagnosis system. International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Computational Intelligence, 2010, 3: 405-408.Chen Baojiang, Zeng Xiaoyuan. Research on structural frame of the embedded monitoring and control system for tower crane. 2010 International Conference on Mechanic Automation and Control Engineering. 2010: 5374-5377.

PurposeComputer vision syndrome (CVS) is one of the most frequently encountered problems among video display terminals (VDT) users, but little is known regarding the short-term effect after exposure to light-emitting diodes (LED). The purpose of this study was to determine if short-term exposure to LED leads to changes in corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), lipid layer thickness (LLT), blink rates, partial blink ratio, and computer vision syndrome questionnaire (CVS-Q) score.DesignProspective, cross-sectional study.MethodsIn this study, participants were recruited at the National Cheng-Kung University Hospital, a tertiary referral center in southern Taiwan, for examination. Participants were asked to complete the CVS-Q and undergo a series of ocular examinations, including CDVA, LLT, blink rates and partial blink ratio before and after watching an LED display for 15 min. Main Outcome Measures were changes in CDVA, LLT, blink rates, partial blink ratio, and CVS-Q measurements.ResultsIn total, 120 eyes from 60 participants (mean age: 35.7 ± 9.4 years) were included; 31 participants were men (51.7%), and 29 were women (48.3%). The CDVA, LLT, blink rates, and partial blink ratio did not change after watching the LED display. The CVS-Q score significantly improved after short-term LED exposure (P < 0.001). A subgroup analysis of subjects with a baseline LLT of <60 nm or ≥60 nm determined that LLT significantly decreased in individuals with a baseline LLT of ≥60 nm (P = 0.016).ConclusionShort-term use of LED displays reduced LLT in individuals with a baseline LLT of ≥60 nm, despite the visual symptoms of CVS improved subjectively. Therefore, digital device users should be aware of the potential negative effects of LED exposure on the eyes.

Eyes are the windows to the soul. Ayurvedic classical texts have mentioned about eye and its diseases since Vedic and Samhita kala, thus showing the importance of eye and ways to protect it. That is why eye care has been one of the priorities since the ages. In Ayurveda clinical features related to Dry eye are generally seen in Suskaksipaka. Over use of Video Display Terminals (V.D.T) like Computer, Mobiles, and Television & faulty lifestyle are some of the causes. Among these disorders, many are related to Indriya (Sensory Organ) especially Caksurindriya (Eye). In metro city, more than 50% cases from ophthalmic OPD are of Dry Eye Syndrome. Dry Eye Syndrome is a common ophthalmic condition, in its real sense is a problem for eye care practitioners due to its variegated etiologies, multi factorial physiopathology, lack of gold standard for diagnostic procedure. No curative treatment modalities are available and the palliative measures are inadequate too. It presents a great challenge to physicians. That’s why its prevalence is very high. It is 5% to 35% worldwide, while in India it is 29.25%. Dry Eye Syndrome also known as Kerato-Conjunctivitis Sicca (KCS) is considered a disease of the modern era. Dry eye syndrome, one of the most frequently encountered ocular morbidities, a growing public health problem and one of the most common conditions seen by the eye care practitioners. Tear secretion provides continuous moisture and lubrication on the ocular surface and provides oxygen to the corneal- epithelium. When the normal tear production is compromised, it leads to dry eyes.

Ubiquitous in airports, border checkpoints, and other securitised spaces throughout the world, full-body imaging scanners claim to read bodies in order to identify if they pose security threats. Millimetre-wave body imaging machines—the most common type of body scanner—display to the operating security agent a screen with a generic body outline. If an anomaly is found or if an individual does not align with the machine’s understanding of an “average” body, a small box is highlighted and placed around the “problem” area, prompting further inspection in the form of pat-downs or questioning. In this complex security regime governed by such biometric, body-based technologies, it could be argued that nonalignment with bodily normativity as well as an attendant failure to reveal oneself—to become “transparent” (Hall 295)—marks a body as dangerous. As these algorithmic technologies become more pervasive, so too does the imperative to critically examine their purported neutrality and operative logic of revelation and readability.Biometric technologies are marketed as excavators of truth, with their optic potency claiming to demask masquerading bodies. Failure and bias are, however, an inescapable aspect of such technologies that work with narrow parameters of human morphology. Indeed, surveillance technologies have been taken to task for their inherent racial and gender biases (Browne; Pugliese). Facial recognition has, for example, been critiqued for its inability to read darker skin tones (Buolamwini and Gebru), while body scanners have been shown to target transgender bodies (Keyes; Magnet and Rodgers; Quinan). Critical security studies scholar Shoshana Magnet argues that error is endemic to the technological functioning of biometrics, particularly since they operate according to the faulty notion that bodies are “stable” and unchanging repositories of information that can be reified into code (Magnet 2).Although body scanners are presented as being able to reliably expose concealed weapons, they are riddled with incompetencies that misidentify and over-select certain demographics as suspect. Full-body scanners have, for example, caused considerable difficulties for transgender travellers, breast cancer patients, and people who use prosthetics, such as artificial limbs, colonoscopy bags, binders, or prosthetic genitalia (Clarkson; Quinan; Spalding). While it is not in the scope of this article to detail the workings of body imaging technologies and their inconsistencies, a growing body of scholarship has substantiated the claim that these machines unfairly impact those identifying as transgender and non-binary (see, e.g., Beauchamp; Currah and Mulqueen; Magnet and Rogers; Sjoberg). Moreover, they are constructed according to a logic of binary gender: before each person enters the scanner, transportation security officers must make a quick assessment of their gender/sex by pressing either a blue (corresponding to “male”) or pink (corresponding to “female”) button. In this sense, biometric, computerised security systems control and monitor the boundaries between male and female.The ability to “reveal” oneself is henceforth predicated on having a body free of “abnormalities” and fitting neatly into one of the two sex categorisations that the machine demands. Transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals, particularly those who do not have a binary gender presentation or whose presentation does not correspond to the sex marker in their documentation, also face difficulties if the machine flags anomalies (Quinan and Bresser). Drawing on a Foucauldian analysis of power as productive, Toby Beauchamp similarly illustrates how surveillance technologies not only identify but also create and reshape the figure of the dangerous subject in relation to normative configurations of gender, race, and able-bodiedness. By mobilizing narratives of concealment and disguise, heightened security measures frame gender nonconformity as dangerous (Beauchamp, Going Stealth). Although national and supranational authorities market biometric scanning technologies as scientifically neutral and exact methods of identification and verification and as an infallible solution to security risks, such tools of surveillance are clearly shaped by preconceptions and prejudgements about race, gender, and bodily normativity. Not only are they encoded with “prototypical whiteness” (Browne) but they are also built on “grossly stereotypical” configurations of gender (Clarkson).Amongst this increasingly securitised landscape, creative forms of artistic resistance can offer up a means of subverting discriminatory policing and surveillance practices by posing alternate visualisations that reveal and challenge their supposed objectivity. In his 2018 audio-video artwork installation entitled SANCTUM, UK-based American artist Zach Blas delves into how biometric technologies, like those described above, both reveal and (re)shape ontology by utilising the affectual resonance of sexual submission. Evoking the contradictory notions of oppression and pleasure, Blas describes SANCTUM as “a mystical environment that perverts sex dungeons with the apparatuses and procedures of airport body scans, biometric analysis, and predictive policing” (see full description at https://zachblas.info/works/sanctum/).Depicting generic mannequins that stand in for the digitalised rendering of the human forms that pass through body scanners, the installation transports the scanners out of the airport and into a queer environment that collapses sex, security, and weaponry; an environment that is “at once a prison-house of algorithmic capture, a sex dungeon with no genitals, a weapons factory, and a temple to security.” This artistic reframing gestures towards full-body scanning technology’s germination in the military, prisons, and other disciplinary systems, highlighting how its development and use has originated from punitive—rather than protective—contexts.In what follows, we adopt a methodological approach that applies visual analysis and close reading to scrutinise a selection of scenes from SANCTUM that underscore the sadomasochistic power inherent in surveillance technologies. Analysing visual and aural elements of the artistic intervention allows us to complicate the relationship between transparency and recognition and to problematise the dynamic of mandatory complicity and revelation that body scanners warrant. In contrast to a discourse of visibility that characterises algorithmically driven surveillance technology, Blas suggests opacity as a resistance strategy to biometrics' standardisation of identity. Taking an approach informed by critical security studies and queer theory, we also argue that SANCTUM highlights the violence inherent to the practice of reducing the body to a flat, inert surface that purports to align with some sort of “core” identity, a notion that contradicts feminist and queer approaches to identity and corporeality as fluid and changing. In close reading this artistic installation alongside emerging scholarship on the discriminatory effects of biometric technology, this article aims to highlight the potential of art to queer the supposed objectivity and neutrality of biometric surveillance and to critically challenge normative logics of revelation and readability.Corporeal Fetishism and Body HorrorThroughout both his artistic practice and scholarly work, Blas has been critical of the above narrative of biometrics as objective extractors of information. Rather than looking to dominant forms of representation as a means for recognition and social change, Blas’s work asks that we strive for creative techniques that precisely queer biometric and legal systems in order to make oneself unaccounted for. For him, “transparency, visibility, and representation to the state should be used tactically, they are never the end goal for a transformative politics but are, ultimately, a trap” (Blas and Gaboury 158). While we would simultaneously argue that invisibility is itself a privilege that is unevenly distributed, his creative work attempts to refuse a politics of visibility and to embrace an “informatic opacity” that is attuned to differences in bodies and identities (Blas).In particular, Blas’s artistic interventions titled Facial Weaponization Suite (2011-14) and Face Cages (2013-16) protest against biometric recognition and the inequalities that these technologies propagate by making masks and wearable metal objects that cannot be detected as human faces. This artistic-activist project contests biometric facial recognition and their attendant inequalities by, as detailed on the artist’s website,making ‘collective masks’ in workshops that are modelled from the aggregated facial data of participants, resulting in amorphous masks that cannot be detected as human faces by biometric facial recognition technologies. The masks are used for public interventions and performances.One mask explores blackness and the racist implications that undergird biometric technologies’ inability to detect dark skin. Meanwhile another mask, which he calls the “Fag Face Mask”, points to the heteronormative underpinnings of facial recognition. Created from the aggregated facial data of queer men, this amorphous pink mask implicitly references—and contests—scientific studies that have attempted to link the identification of sexual orientation through rapid facial recognition techniques.Building on this body of creative work that has advocated for opacity as a tool of social and political transformation, SANCTUM resists the revelatory impulses of biometric technology by turning to the use and abuse of full-body imaging. The installation opens with a shot of a large, dark industrial space. At the far end of a red, spotlighted corridor, a black mask flickers on a screen. A shimmering, oscillating sound reverberates—the opening bars of a techno track—that breaks down in rhythm while the mask evaporates into a cloud of smoke. The camera swivels, and a white figure—the generic mannequin of the body scanner screen—is pummelled by invisible forces as if in a wind tunnel. These ghostly silhouettes appear and reappear in different positions, with some being whipped and others stretched and penetrated by a steel anal hook. Rather than conjuring a traditional horror trope of the body’s terrifying, bloody interior, SANCTUM evokes a new kind of feared and fetishized trope that is endemic to the current era of surveillance capitalism: the abstracted body, standardised and datafied, created through the supposedly objective and efficient gaze of AI-driven machinery.Resting on the floor in front of the ominous animated mask are neon fragments arranged in an occultist formation—hands or half a face. By breaking the body down into component parts— “from retina to fingerprints”—biometric technologies “purport to make individual bodies endlessly replicable, segmentable and transmissible in the transnational spaces of global capital” (Magnet 8). The notion that bodies can be seamlessly turned into blueprints extracted from biological and cultural contexts has been described by Donna Haraway as “corporeal fetishism” (Haraway, Modest). In the context of SANCTUM, Blas illustrates the dangers of mistaking a model for a “concrete entity” (Haraway, “Situated” 147). Indeed, the digital cartography of the generic mannequin becomes no longer a mode of representation but instead a technoscientific truth.Several scenes in SANCTUM also illustrate a process whereby substances are extracted from the mannequins and used as tools to enact violence. In one such instance, a silver webbing is generated over a kneeling figure. Upon closer inspection, this geometric structure, which is reminiscent of Blas’s earlier Face Cages project, is a replication of the triangulated patterns produced by facial recognition software in its mapping of distance between eyes, nose, and mouth. In the next scene, this “map” breaks apart into singular shapes that float and transform into a metallic whip, before eventually reconstituting themselves as a penetrative douche hose that causes the mannequin to spasm and vomit a pixelated liquid. Its secretions levitate and become the webbing, and then the sequence begins anew.In another scene, a mannequin is held upside-down and force-fed a bubbling liquid that is being pumped through tubes from its arms, legs, and stomach. These depictions visualise Magnet’s argument that biometric renderings of bodies are understood not to be “tropic” or “historically specific” but are instead presented as “plumbing individual depths in order to extract core identity” (5). In this sense, this visual representation calls to mind biometrics’ reification of body and identity, obfuscating what Haraway would describe as the “situatedness of knowledge”. Blas’s work, however, forces a critique of these very systems, as the materials extracted from the bodies of the mannequins in SANCTUM allude to how biometric cartographies drawn from travellers are utilised to justify detainment. These security technologies employ what Magnet has referred to as “surveillant scopophilia,” that is, new ways and forms of looking at the human body “disassembled into component parts while simultaneously working to assuage individual anxieties about safety and security through the promise of surveillance” (17). The transparent body—the body that can submit and reveal itself—is ironically represented by the distinctly genderless translucent mannequins. Although the generic mannequins are seemingly blank slates, the installation simultaneously forces a conversation about the ways in which biometrics draw upon and perpetuate assumptions about gender, race, and sexuality.Biometric SubjugationOn her 2016 critically acclaimed album HOPELESSNESS, openly transgender singer, composer, and visual artist Anohni performs a deviant subjectivity that highlights the above dynamics that mark the contemporary surveillance discourse. To an imagined “daddy” technocrat, she sings:Watch me… I know you love me'Cause you're always watching me'Case I'm involved in evil'Case I'm involved in terrorism'Case I'm involved in child molestersEvoking a queer sexual frisson, Anohni describes how, as a trans woman, she is hyper-visible to state institutions. She narrates a voyeuristic relation where trans bodies are policed as threats to public safety rather than protected from systemic discrimination. Through the seemingly benevolent “daddy” character and the play on ‘cause (i.e., because) and ‘case (i.e., in case), she highlights how gender-nonconforming individuals are predictively surveilled and assumed to already be guilty. Reflecting on daddy-boy sexual paradigms, Jack Halberstam reads the “sideways” relations of queer practices as an enactment of “rupture as substitution” to create a new project that “holds on to vestiges of the old but distorts” (226). Upending power and control, queer art has the capacity to both reveal and undermine hegemonic structures while simultaneously allowing for the distortion of the old to create something new.Employing the sublimatory relations of bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism (BDSM), Blas’s queer installation similarly creates a sideways representation that re-orientates the logic of the biometric scanners, thereby unveiling the always already sexualised relations of scrutiny and interrogation as well as the submissive complicity they demand. Replacing the airport environment with a dark and foreboding mise-en-scène allows Blas to focus on capture rather than mobility, highlighting the ways in which border checkpoints (including those instantiated by the airport) encourage free travel for some while foreclosing movement for others. Building on Sara Ahmed’s “phenomenology of being stopped”, Magnet considers what happens when we turn our gaze to those “who fail to pass the checkpoint” (107). In SANCTUM, the same actions are played out again and again on spectral beings who are trapped in various states: they shudder in cages, are chained to the floor, or are projected against the parameters of mounted screens. One ghostly figure, for instance, lies pinned down by metallic grappling hooks, arms raised above the head in a recognisable stance of surrender, conjuring up the now-familiar image of a traveller standing in the cylindrical scanner machine, waiting to be screened. In portraying this extended moment of immobility, Blas lays bare the deep contradictions in the rhetoric of “freedom of movement” that underlies such spaces.On a global level, media reporting, scientific studies, and policy documents proclaim that biometrics are essential to ensuring personal safety and national security. Within the public imagination, these technologies become seductive because of their marked ability to identify terrorist attackers—to reveal threatening bodies—thereby appealing to the anxious citizen’s fear of the disguised suicide bomber. Yet for marginalised identities prefigured as criminal or deceptive—including transgender and black and brown bodies—the inability to perform such acts of revelation via submission to screening can result in humiliation and further discrimination, public shaming, and even tortuous inquiry – acts that are played out in SANCTUM.Masked GenitalsFeminist surveillance studies scholar Rachel Hall has referred to the impetus for revelation in the post-9/11 era as a desire for a universal “aesthetics of transparency” in which the world and the body is turned inside-out so that there are no longer “secrets or interiors … in which terrorists or terrorist threats might find refuge” (127). Hall takes up the case study of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (infamously known as “the Underwear Bomber”) who attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while onboard a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on 25 December 2009. Hall argues that this event signified a coalescence of fears surrounding bodies of colour, genitalia, and terrorism. News reports following the incident stated that Abdulmutallab tucked his penis to make room for the explosive, thereby “queer[ing] the aspiring terrorist by indirectly referencing his willingness … to make room for a substitute phallus” (Hall 289). Overtly manifested in the Underwear Bomber incident is also a desire to voyeuristically expose a hidden, threatening interiority, which is inherently implicated with anxieties surrounding gender deviance. Beauchamp elaborates on how gender deviance and transgression have coalesced with terrorism, which was exemplified in the wake of the 9/11 attacks when the United States Department of Homeland Security issued a memo that male terrorists “may dress as females in order to discourage scrutiny” (“Artful” 359). Although this advisory did not explicitly reference transgender populations, it linked “deviant” gender presentation—to which we could also add Abdulmutallab’s tucking of his penis—with threats to national security (Beauchamp, Going Stealth). This also calls to mind a broader discussion of the ways in which genitalia feature in the screening process. Prior to the introduction of millimetre-wave body scanning technology, the most common form of scanner used was the backscatter imaging machine, which displayed “naked” body images of each passenger to the security agent. Due to privacy concerns, these machines were replaced by the scanners currently in place which use a generic outline of a passenger (exemplified in SANCTUM) to detect possible threats.It is here worth returning to Blas’s installation, as it also implicitly critiques the security protocols that attempt to reveal genitalia as both threatening and as evidence of an inner truth about a body. At one moment in the installation a bayonet-like object pierces the blank crotch of the mannequin, shattering it into holographic fragments. The apparent genderlessness of the mannequins is contrasted with these graphic sexual acts. The penetrating metallic instrument that breaks into the loin of the mannequin, combined with the camera shot that slowly zooms in on this action, draws attention to a surveillant fascination with genitalia and revelation. As Nicholas L. Clarkson documents in his analysis of airport security protocols governing prostheses, including limbs and packies (silicone penis prostheses), genitals are a central component of the screening process. While it is stipulated that physical searches should not require travellers to remove items of clothing, such as underwear, or to expose their genitals to staff for inspection, prosthetics are routinely screened and examined. This practice can create tensions for trans or disabled passengers with prosthetics in so-called “sensitive” areas, particularly as guidelines for security measures are often implemented by airport staff who are not properly trained in transgender-sensitive protocols.ConclusionAccording to media technologies scholar Jeremy Packer, “rather than being treated as one to be protected from an exterior force and one’s self, the citizen is now treated as an always potential threat, a becoming bomb” (382). Although this technological policing impacts all who are subjected to security regimes (which is to say, everyone), this amalgamation of body and bomb has exacerbated the ways in which bodies socially coded as threatening or deceptive are targeted by security and surveillance regimes. Nonetheless, others have argued that the use of invasive forms of surveillance can be justified by the state as an exchange: that citizens should willingly give up their right to privacy in exchange for safety (Monahan 1). Rather than subscribing to this paradigm, Blas’ SANCTUM critiques the violence of mandatory complicity in this “trade-off” narrative. Because their operationalisation rests on normative notions of embodiment that are governed by preconceptions around gender, race, sexuality and ability, surveillance systems demand that bodies become transparent. This disproportionally affects those whose bodies do not match norms, with trans and queer bodies often becoming unreadable (Kafer and Grinberg). The shadowy realm of SANCTUM illustrates this tension between biometric revelation and resistance, but also suggests that opacity may be a tool of transformation in the face of such discriminatory violations that are built into surveillance.ReferencesAhmed, Sara. “A Phenomenology of Whiteness.” Feminist Theory 8.2 (2007): 149–68.Beauchamp, Toby. “Artful Concealment and Strategic Visibility: Transgender Bodies and U.S. State Surveillance after 9/11.” Surveillance & Society 6.4 (2009): 356–66.———. Going Stealth: Transgender Politics and U.S. Surveillance Practices. 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