High-Tech Lie Detection Systems

Scientists at Tel Aviv University that have developed a new method of lie detection. Prof. Hanein and colleague Prof. Dino Levy lead a team that have identified two types of liars - those who involuntarily move their eyebrows when they tell a fib, and those that cannot control a very slight lip movement where their lips meet their cheeks.

The software and algorithm they use can now detect 73% of lies and they intend to improve that as they develop the system. "When you try to conceal a lie, one of the things you try to avoid is any sort of body reaction... But it's very, very hard for you to conceal a lie with this technology." Prof Levy says.

The early 20th Century saw the invention of the first lie detection machines or polygraphs. The most well-known of these is the "analogue polygraph", which typically has three or four ink-filled needles that dance round on a strip of moving paper. The suspect has sensors attached to their fingers, arms and body and the machine then measures breathing rate, pulse, blood pressure and perspiration as they answer a series of questions. 

Currently the polygraph is the best-known technique for psycho-physiological detection of deception. The goal of all of these techniques is to detect deception by analysing signals of changes in the body that cannot normally be detected by human observation. Unfortunately, these devices are not considered wholly accurate.

However, the availability of cheaper computing power, brain-scanning technologies and artificial intelligence has given birth to  a powerful new generation of lie-detection tools based upon measuring changes in cognitive load,  which has an involuntary impact on the eyes and reading behaviour, which can be accurately measured. 

The Tel Aviv researchers say that a combination of skin electrodes measuring facial muscle movements and video cameras monitoring eye movements and subtle changes in pupil size, are capable of detecting a liar with a much higher level of certainty.

In the commercial sector a number of companies have been set up with the aim of using similar technology to produce what they hope will be an infallible lie detector  for use law enforcement and other state agencies as  well as employers, insurance companies and others. 

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