Pocket detector detects the liar's tremor

By ROBERT UHLIG
LONDON
Wednesday 29 November 2000

Bad news for cheating spouses, politicians who have no intention of sticking to their election promises and other habitual liars. A company has developed a portable lie detector that exposes fibbers by detecting tremors in their voice.

The $A94 pocket-sized gadget, called the Handy Truster Emotion Reader can be plugged into telephones and mobile phones. Its South Korean makers say it can see through eight out of 10 lies, putting an end to claims that cheques are in the post.

Using technology developed for the Israeli military and tested on Al Gore and George W. Bush in a presidential debate, the detector is claimed to be more accurate than polygraph tests. While polygraphs analyse physiological reactions such as changes in pulse rate, the Handy Truster works on the principle that when people lie the blood flow to their vocal cords is restricted by stress. Amir Lieberman, who developed the software at the heart of the Handy Truster, said such stress causes faltering changes in the voice at such a low frequency they are inaudible to humans.

"here's something holding you back from saying the lie fluently," he said. "We can tell if the stress is caused by lying, excitement, exaggeration or emotional conflict." The gadget displays its verdict on the veracity of any statement with a partially eaten apple on its display screen. The truth elicits an uneaten apple; any doubts about the speaker's honesty and the gadget removes up to eight bites. Avoiding replying to questions produces a half-eaten apple and a downright lie results in a gnawed apple core.

In the recent presidential debate, according to Truster, Mr Bush told 57 lies and Mr Gore 23.

The Daily Telegraph

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An apple started it all.....

Regards from OZ

-- Pieter (zaadz@icisp.net.au), November 28, 2000

Answers

Imagine how conversations might change if you knew the person at the other end of the line had one of these hooked up to their phone. Or imagine how they might change even if you only thought the other person might have one hooked up... (I want one!)

-- I'm Here, I'm There, (I'm Everywhere,@So.Beware), November 29, 2000.

>> Imagine how conversations might change if you knew the person at the other end of the line had one of these hooked up to their phone. <<

In reading a book on Information Theory, I discovered that phone lines rarely carry 10% of the "information" conveyed by a human voice.

They (the Bell Lab engineers) decided you only needed enough vocal information to detect who you were talking to (Aunt Ethel! Is that really you!?) and dropped out the rest, since it would have required mre sophsticated and expensive equipment to keep it there and it "didn't add anything important". So, the chances are good that, once a phone line has filtered out much of the audio nuances, this device would be much less reliable.

But, hey! Great article!

-- Brian McLaughlin (brianm@ims.com), November 29, 2000.

You have to wonder whether the phone lines carry more fidelity than all the various media (and switching) before the sound leaves the TV speakers and reaches your detector. Brian is quite right, these systems aren't designed to carry a lot of bandwidth, they're designed to be small and cheap and affordable. Call me when they're admitted as evidence in court.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), November 29, 2000.

Rats. But I can see the first aftermarket add-on already: a microphone designed to plug directly into the unit's input. That way, you could just point the unit straight at someone (in person) as you ask them if they took the last of the strawberries from the ship's freezer (it's an old movie reference, for those who've never seen The Caine Mutiny).

-- I'm Here, I'm There, (I'm Everywhere,@So.Beware), November 30, 2000.