Security cameras which analyse 'demeanour' on horizon?

Cameras with a facility to detect possible terrorists are to be rolled out across major British airports, according to a report in the Scotland on Sunday newspaper.

Glasgow Airport, Edinburgh Airport and Aberdeen Airport will join scores of travel hubs south of the border in installing the cameras, which are able to spot given individuals and detect 'microexpressions' and alterations in demeanour which could be deemed suspicious, the newspaper claimed.

According to the paper, the cameras, already used in US and Israeli airports, would be trained on crowds as they wait to check in their luggage, eliminating a loophole whereby security checks currently happen only after check-in is complete.

"The cameras will be phased in over the next few months across the UK as part of a rolling programme of new anti-terror initiatives," the newspaper was told by a 'senior security source'.

Sceptics are concerned, however, that the cameras may not be a fail-safe mode of screening passengers and may even contribute to the kind of 'profiling' many have protested against in more conventional terrorist-detection methods.

The story has not yet been confirmed by airport authorities.