The polygraph is widely used in the US in criminal and other cases and for security clearance for the FBI and CIA but is much less popular in Europe. There has been a lot of skepticism in the scientific and legal communities about its reliability. By contrast, the new method developed by the researchers has performed well in experiments. The basic premise is that liars fidget more and so the use of an all-body motion suit – the kind used in films to create computer-generated characters – will pick this up. One of the research team, Ross Anderson, said: “Decades of deception research show that the interviewer will tell truth from lies only slightly better than random.” He said the new method, by contrast, achieved a reliability rating of over 70%. In some tests, the team has already achieved more than 80%. Anderson said: “The takeaway message is that guilty people fidget more and we can measure this robustly.”
What position does Ross Anderson hold?
A researcher on the team developing the new method for lie-detection A test participant whose lies the new method could correctly detect 80% of the time A special effects editor who creates computer generated characters for tests A director of an organization looking to refine interrogation methods