Professor Yael Hanein of the Tel Aviv University (Image credit: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY)
Researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel developed a new lie detector test that could eventually substitute the ones commonly used today. This system uses a person’s microexpressions to determine if they’re being truthful. More specifically, electrodes connected to the person’s face detect unintentional eyebrow and lip motion, which occurs in many people who aren’t being honest.
Today’s lie detector systems have been around for approximately 80 years. These rely on a psychogalvanometer to identify the activation of a test subject’s sweat glands. It also uses a pneumograph to detect thoracic movements. Afterward, the test administrator applies the Reid Control Question Technique, which involves asking emotionally arousing questions for truthful subjects and less emotionally arousing questions for deceptive participants. Since its introduction in 1938, the system has only gone through one improvement. It now operates with computers that record and analyze a subject’s physiological data.
For the team’s system, nerve and muscle-measuring electrodes, which use soft stickers, attach near a subject’s lips and eyebrows to detect involuntary movement. Subjects were instructed to perform a task in pairs. In the task, one participant wore headphones and with specific words, like “line” or “tree,” spoken to them. The wearer would then need to repeat those words. Meanwhile, the other participant predicts whether or not the test subject is lying. The results show that the electrodes, which worked with software and an algorithm, performed exceptionally well with a 73% lie detection success rate. Although it’s not entirely foolproof, the system has more potential than traditional detectors that have a 55% success rate.
The team also hopes to improve the system’s detection capabilities as they proceed with further developments. In addition, they hope that high-resolution cameras, rather than electrodes, can detect dishonest individuals through facial movement identification from a greater distance. In this case, they could be deployed in airports, online job interviews, police interrogations, or banks.
Read the whole paper after this jump.
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