Quick! Send An XBox To DEN!

Could TSA screeners do their jobs better if they played Halo 3 on their off-time?

After all the brainpower and money that's been thrown at the problem since 9/11, The Boston Globe reports few efforts have made any real improvements in the ability of the human mind to notice rarely-occurring shapes on an X-ray... whether it's a tumor on a mammogram, or a Glock in a carry-on bag.

Psychologists have figured out moving objects are more easily detected than those which hold still, which comes as no surprise to experienced hunters. But they've also found exposure to the outline of a particular object in an attention-getting way makes the human mind more sensitive to it for a brief period.

It was during study of this secondary effect that researchers found subjects who played violent, first-person shooter video games for at least five hours a week dropped their error rates in simulated TSA-type screenings from 25 percent to 15 percent.

"The screener folks often get a bum press," said Jeremy Wolfe, a professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, who runs the Vision Attention Lab at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "But I have seen very little evidence that they are anything other than professionals trying to do a very good job. And the people who are designing the task aren't stupid either -- but it's really hard."

The Department of Homeland Security has given the lab between $100,000-$150,000 over the past five years.

The idea is still pending real-world testing and peer review, but combined with the other suspected effects of violent video games, we have two bits of advice for future travelers.

First, expect more efficient screeners in the future.

Second... whatever you do, don't make them angry.

FMI: www.tsa.gov, www.hms.harvard.edu/