Lie-detector camera looks into your eyes

    A new heat-detecting camera can catch a liar¹ in the act - at least 75% of the time, according to a small scientific study out today.

  If additional tests confirm its ability, the lie-detector camera might one day be used by airport security to apprehend² terrorists before they get on an airplane, says researcher James Levine of the Mayo Clinic.

 测谎摄像机看透眼睛

    今日公布的一项小型科研表明，一种新型的热检测摄像机，至少在75%的检测中能当场捉住说谎者。

    梅约医院的研究人员James Levine说，如果另外的试验也能证实该机的性能，总有一天，机场保安会运用这种测谎摄像机去逮捕企图登机的恐怖分子。       

   But one critic questions whether the camera would ever be reliable enough to be used on a large scale, or whether it could spot someone who plans to commit a crime.

    Levine's group reported their early findings in today's Nature.

    Levine and his colleagues enlisted³ 20 U.S. Army recruits to help test the camera, which records the heat patterns that are created when blood rushes to the human face. The researchers told eight of the recruits in the study to commit a mock crime. They were told to stab a mannequin, rob it of $20, then lie about the "crime." The remaining 12 people in the study knew nothing about the fake crime.

    但是，一位批评者质疑该摄像机在大规模使用时是否可靠，或它是否真能准确地找出企图犯罪的人。

    Levine在今天的《自然》杂志上报告了他们的初步研究结果。

    Levine和他的同事选出20名美军新兵参与试验该摄像机，该试验记录着当血涌上人脸时所形成的热图形。研究人员让8名受试的新兵模拟犯罪，叫他们刺伤人体模型，从中抢走20美元，然后说谎来掩盖这次"罪行"。其余12名受试新兵则对这次模拟犯罪一无所知。  

 The researchers took all 20 people into an interrogation room. They asked them whether they had stolen $20 and then recorded their answers with a standard polygraph test and the new camera.

    The camera caught six out of eight liars⁴ as they were lying - the same lie-detecting ability as the polygraph test. The camera also correctly identified 11 of the 12 people who were telling the truth - a slightly better rate than the polygraph.

    The study is so small that it can't be used as proof of the camera's ability to catch a thief or a liar, Levine says. Still, he is hopeful that the camera is recording⁵ a subtle flushing of the face that may automatically occur when someone lies.

   研究人员把20名受试者带入审讯室，审问他们是否偷了20美元，然后用标准测谎仪和新型摄像机记录他们的回答。

    摄像机从正在说谎的8人中鉴别出6人说了谎，该机的测谎能力与测试仪相同。摄像机也从12位说实话者中正确地识别出11人，稍强于测谎仪。

  Levine说，该研究刚刚起步，该机还不能作为捉住小偷或说谎者的证据，但他希望该机能记录人们在说谎时所自发产生的微微脸红。  

    That flushing may not be caught by the naked eye, but the camera shows a bright red-orange-yellow zone that represents blood rushing to the eyes. "When someone lies, you get an instantaneous warming around the eyes," he says. Levine speculates that people who lie are afraid of getting caught. That fear triggers a primitive⁶ response to run away. Blood goes to the eyes so that the liar can more efficiently⁷ map out an escape route, he says.

   Levine says it may take years before the camera would be ready for a test at a large U.S. airport.

    肉眼看不到这种脸红，但摄像机可显示一个明亮的红-橙-黄带，它代表人的血液涌到了眼睛上。他说："当某人说谎时，眼睛周围立即会出现发热。" Levine推测说，说谎的人害怕被捉住，这种恐惧引起要逃跑的本能反应，血冲到眼睛是为了有助于说谎者更好地找到逃跑线路。

    Levine说，可能还要花几年时间，才能将该摄像机投放在美国大型机场做检测用。    

   Alan Zelicoff, a senior scientist at the Center for National Security and Arms Control at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, says that even if the camera works as well as it did in this study, it would mistakenly label lots of people as liars. At a busy U.S. airport, those mistakes could mean a thousand passengers a day who would get pulled aside by security - a move that would probably mean lots of missed flights and irate⁸ passengers, he says.USATODAY