UK airport trials covert lie detectors

Secret lie detectors which can rumble fraudsters without them even knowing they were suspected are to be installed at a British airport, writes the Daily Mail.

High definition video and thermal imaging cameras could be used at passport control or in customs interviews to detect those trying to trick immigration officials.

The cameras, which would be installed covertly, would be able to pick up tell-tale signs of people giving false accounts of themselves based on research under way now.

According to News.com.au, Hassan Ugail, a professor of visual computing at the University of Bradford and who designed the system, says: “In an interview you can be talking to a person, then you basically just press a computer button and say: was this person lying or not?”

Such systems could lead to sharp improvements in security but also raise issues of privacy and misuse. They could, for example, be deployed in ethically debatable situations such as business meetings, schools or even by suspicious spouses and parents.

Ugail built his system around the observations that when people lie their brain activity rises as they work out the most plausible tale to spin.

News Track India reports that the devices work by monitoring tiny changes in facial expression, including eye movement and micro facial expressions, which indicate the increased brain activity as a liar works out the most plausible story.

The brain activity also triggers tiny fluctuations in facial skin temperature, which can be picked up by thermal imaging cameras.

The pictures are then compared with a computer database containing the types of changes seen in people who are known to be lying.