Future Now | Better Not Lie

Cathy Bernstein of Florida hit a truck and a van, and fled the scene. But her car sensed a change in movement pattern typical of an accident and it very kindly called the police, giving all the details needed.

Many clever cars already have such safety features but there may come a time when the tech trickles down to all cars. How interesting to think that Salman Khan and Hema Malini's car accidents could have been dealt with easily if sensors and cameras has been put to work.

Cameras and sensors are all set to be embedded in everyday objects around us. Lying is going to get difficult. In fact in the University of Michigan, researchers are perfecting software that examines and analyses body language and word patterns to detect whether a person is lying. Videos of someone can be used to have a good close look at patterns of gestures and word usage and micro expressions typical when a person is lying. when thousands of such videos are analysed and the data collected, it becomes a base with which to compare individual patterns. No electrodes need to be connected to a person. The base data has been gathered from courtroom trial situations where plenty of lying may go on and this gives material with which to compare individual data. The accuracy is going up to such an extent, that the researchers confidently challenge people to lie and allow the software to detect it. Accuracy was up to 75%. For example someone who is being deceptive will tend to deliberately look another person in the eye, bravely, directly. Another giveaway is that there will be an overdoing of hand gestures. Some word patterns are also more typical of deception.

For now such software is confined to research labs but it could soon make its way into criminal investigations and maybe one day be admissible in court. But imagine it becoming part of the stuff of everyday connected things. It's unsettling, I cannot tell a lie!