Speak Up, Please–The Lie Detector Is Listening

Software for voice-based, lie-detector testing continues to improve, and is prompting other applications for the technology. For example, insurance companies are using voice stress analysis to determine whether customer telephone claims are fraudulent.

. There is still some disagreement over the reliability of having lie-detector tests use voice stress analysis, but law enforcement agencies have been using the technology for years. The National Institute for Truth Verification counts more than 1,400 law enforcement agencies in the United States, as well as state and federal agencies, as its customers, and only sells the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer to law enforcement agencies and the federal government.

The system displays on a computer screen the voice response levels of a subject answering the questions of a trained interviewer, who is able to interpret the range of emotions that would signal an intent to deceive.

Voice-based testing can be conducted with a telephone call, and can be performed covertly, notes Detective Pat Kemper of the Springfield Township Police Department in Ohio. “It can really be done anywhere,” says Kemper. “You can use it for anything.”
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the New York Times (07/03/04); Heingartner, Douglas .