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There is growing interest in the potential for a technology known as brain fingerprinting to be used in the fight against crime and terrorism, but it's far from reliable.
Its use without consent violates human rights. And importantly, the technology (as it currently exists) can be tricked.
Brain fingerprinting seeks to detect deception by essentially reading thoughts. It works by using electroencephelography (EEG) to read the electrical activity of the brain, with the aim of trying to identify a phenomenon known as the P300 response [DOI: 10.1097/00004691-199210000-00002] [DX].
The P300 response is a noticeable spike in the brain's electrical activity, which usually occurs within one-third of a second of being shown a familiar stimulus. The idea is that our subconscious brain has an uncontrollable and measurable response to familiar stimuli that the machine can register.
Imagine, for example, that a particular knife was used in a murder, and police show an image of it to their lead suspect who denies the crime. If the suspect registers a P300 response and thus a positive recognition of the knife, this would seem to suggest he's lying. Alternatively, if the suspect doesn't register a positive recognition, maybe police have the wrong guy.
Could you escape culpability for your crimes by taking a roofie afterward?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday September 27 2017, @03:32PM (2 children)
Instead of saying Psi cop, i was going to say Alfred Bester but figured no one would get the link.
Yeah, Jason already blew his goo BIG TIME! ;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 27 2017, @03:57PM (1 child)
You should have. This isn't Facebook, B5 and things older than 3 years exist.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Wednesday September 27 2017, @11:49PM
Heh... I always have to think to make the Alfred Bester - B5 link when I hear that name. For me Alfred Bester wrote the Demolished Man etc. (And yeah the B5 character is named for the author.)