Themodern polygraph machine was invented in 1921 — almost a century ago. When using this machine, administrators rely on certain physiological responses from subjects, such as pulse and blood pressure,to help them determine if a subject is lying.
The problem with this type of lie detecting machine is that the results are somewhat subjective because the machine does not actually detect lies. Instead, the deviceonly detects the physiological person’s reaction.
A physiological reaction only allows the administrator to draw a conclusion that the person is having such a response because he or she may be lying.
But the person might just simply be nervous, not lying, and the nervousness can skew the results of the tests.
The subjectivity of lie detecting is all about to change, however.
With AI technology present in smartphones and devices such as the Amazon Echo, it should be no surprise that state-of-the-art technology is already being experimented with that stands to disrupt the lie detecting industry for the first time in almost one hundred years.
All About the New Technology
The new technology,brandedEyeDetect, was created by Converus, a company based in Utah.
According to the company’s website, the technology is the first of its kind because it’s nonintrusive and it can accurately detect a subject’s intent to deceive within 30 minutes through its analysis of the eye and other telling behaviors.
Although the concept for EyeDetect was developed in 2002, it wasn’t branded until 2013. Then, two years later, in 2015, the EyeDetect product was released to the U.S. market.
A group of peer-reviewed studies has proven that the technology works, and the technology has been used in at least 40 countries — typically by government agencies.
Some of the advantages of the new technology over a polygraph are that EyeDetect uses AI technology and doesn’t require a trained examiner as a polygraph test does.
It also can produce results at the end of a 30-minute test, whereas polygraphs take at least 90 minutes to conduct and often require several more hours for a report to be completed.
Can an Employer Make You Take a Lie Detector Test?
Unless youare a public employee or are applying for a job in agovernment-based position, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever have to deal with an employer forcing you to take a polygraph test.
Most private employers are prohibited from using lie detector tests for pre-employment screening or screening during employment by The Employee Polygraph Protection Act.
How is EyeDetect Used?
EyeDetect can be used by companies in countries that allow the administration of lie detector tests in the workplace, such as for pre-employment screening or testing of current employees. It also can be helpful in screening immigrants, visa applicants, sex offenders and those who are on probation or who have been paroled.
How the Test Works
The test is completely automated. People who take the EyeDetect test are seated in front of an EyeDetect station, which consists of a computer outfitted with an eye-tracking camera. During a 15-to-30-minute period, the person taking the test answers a series of questions with a true or false response.
Meanwhile, the person’s responses and eye movements — specifically things like pupil dilation and blink rate — are recorded and stored on an encrypted device. When the test is completed, all data collected is sent to a secure server where it’s analyzed by the program’s proprietary algorithms.
How Accurate is EyeDetect?
Converus points to studies that show that humans can accurately detect a lie about 54 percent of the time, whereas the EyeDetect test has shown to have a much higheraccuracy rate of approximately 86 percent.
Furthermore, when an EyeDetect test is used in conjunction with a polygraph and both indicate the subject is lying, the accuracy of EyeDetect increases to as high as 99%.
The Use of EyeDetect in Court Cases
Because EyeDetect is an automated test with results determined by a computer algorithm, its use in court cases is a real possibility. In fact, one judge presiding over a federal court case allowed the results of an EyeDetect test as admissible in court.
That means it’s plausible that other judges will follow suit and allow AI lie detector test results to be presented as evidence in their courtrooms as well. However, the accuracy of the system is not 100 percent, which means that, like the polygraph, there is a margin of error and people who are not lying could still be wrongly accused.
Even so, a major breakthrough like this — after almost a century of dealing with the same antiquated technology —will undoubtedly disrupt the lie detecting industry for many years to come.
