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The Eyes Have It

Posted by michael on from the do-you-still-love-me dept.

Feelgood writes: "Yahoo is carrying a Reuters report that thermal imaging may be used in airports to detect liars. Shouldn't be a problem that 1 out of 4 liars will get away and 1 in 10 innocents will be incorrectly nailed." There's a UPI story about the lie detector possibilities and a blurb in Nature. From the UPI article, the inventor has a good appreciation of the ethical considerations. Will anyone else care?

2 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. Once more, for all the slow JBT's. by jcr · · Score: 5, Informative


    I would like to point out that while Aldritch Ames was in the process of getting a whole lot of US agents in the Soviet Union killed by ratting them out, he continued to pass his polygraph tests.

    There's no such thing as a lie detector. Polygraphs are voodoo, and so is this.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  2. It's sounds better than a polygraph. by AnotherBlackHat · · Score: 5, Informative

    Polygraphs are considered about 75% accurate, which sounds good until you consider that flipping a coin is 50% accurate.

    If they can really catch 3 out of 4 liars, and "avoid" 9 out of 10 innocents,
    (which is what the article claims inventors claim) then it's much better than 75%.
    If 1 in 100 people are "liars" then this would be nearly 90% effective.
    Which again sounds good until consider that identifying everybody as innocent would be 99% accurate.

    On the plus side, this might make wearing eye shadow a crime under the DMCA.

    Polygraphs can be beat simply by putting a thumb tack in your shoe,
    and stepping on it during the "little bad" questions and not during the "big bad" question.
    (saying that probably makes this post a violation of the DMCA ...)
    I'd bet that this device can be beat by a similar method.