Reporting by Luke Cullen
Scientists from the University of Tel Aviv have possibly cracked the case on stopping liars, thanks to a newly developed prototype device.
The new device is said to be able to catch fib tellers in the act due to its innate ability to read tiny movements in the facial muscles using electrodes stuck to a person’s skin.
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, Professor Dino Levy described how "our test is a lot harder to track as it’s based on changes in muscles that we aren’t even aware of."
Testers sit in pairs, face to face. Researchers then stick electrodes onto the cheeks or eyebrows in order to detect certain movements. One tester wears headphones where words ‘line ‘or ‘tree’ are played.
Then, when the wearer intentionally says an incorrect word, it was up to their partner to try and infer if they were lying, after which they swapped roles.
As expected, the testers could only use guesswork to detect lies, but their accuracy jumped from 55% to 73% when switching to the scanner.
Once perfected, researchers hope it can be used by law enforcement worldwide to help in the fight against crime, with Dr Levy expecting the scanner to bring 'numerous, highly diverse results.'
