‘New Emotion Detector Can See When We’re Lying’
September 14th, 2011[???]
Via: BBC:
A sophisticated new camera system can detect lies just by watching our faces as we talk, experts say.
The computerised system uses a simple video camera, a high-resolution thermal imaging sensor and a suite of algorithms.
Researchers say the system could be a powerful aid to security services.
It successfully discriminates between truth and lies in about two-thirds of cases, said lead researcher Professor Hassan Ugail from Bradford University.
The system, developed by a team from the universities of Bradford and Aberystwyth in conjunction with the UK Border Agency, was unveiled today at the British Science Festival in Bradford.
This new approach builds on years of research into how we all unconsciously, involuntarily reveal our emotions in subtle changes of expression and the flow of blood to our skin.
We give our emotions away in our eye movements, dilated pupils, biting or pressing together our lips, wrinkling our noses, breathing heavily, swallowing, blinking and facial asymmetry. And these are just the visible signs seen by the camera.
Even swelling blood vessels around our eyes betray us, and the thermal sensor spots them too.
If only they used these tools for purposes like questioning 9/11 commission report writers.
Sounds great, a success rate of “about” two-thirds, in a comfortable laboratory setting. Who, when confronted, for example, in an airport by a gaggle of TSA agents with the All-Knowing Cyclopean in tow, is NOT going to display visble signs of distress? Especially when asked if they are carrying explosives onboard or intend to harm their country? Will this thing be able to distinguish between dissembling, and discomfort, disgust or just plain outrage? Because once the “suite of algorithms” says you are lying, they are never going to let you go.
I’m with the Magic Man at #1…
…the most effective test of this technology is on the politicians, not the proles.
Not that I think it will ever actually happen, mind you. But what a great way to up the stakes in the “checks & balances” game.
What politico could honestly object to such a measure?
Then again, “good for the goose, good for the gander” has never been a strong suit of ruling elites and their various lapdogs and guard dogs.
I expect the first place we’ll see this dystopian tech applied will be in interrogation units and at border crossing stations.
And as ever, utopia and dystopia are just opposing edges of the same sword, each equally capable of social defenestration and cultural vivisection. Or when all else fails, taking “a little off the top”.
The computer says you are lying… go directly to jail.
About two-thirds success rate? My personal success rate is much, much, much higher than that. (In fact, so far as I know, it has never failed me, and I’ve ID’d a lot of lies and liars in my six decades.) There’s always a “tell”, and if (big if) you are not subject to fantasy and wishful thinking, if you are actually open to the reality of what’s in front of you, however ugly or disappointing it might be, it’s not hard to spot. Exception — I’d like to see how this system performs when analyzing true psychopaths. Borrow some from your local prison, or your local boardroom.
I agree that the net result of this system will be to “catch” a lot of nervous, anxious people and suck them down the “security” rabbit hole.