Catching Pants on Fire at AZ Border

'Liar liar, pants on fire' goes the rhyme. This story caught my attention, in light of the ongoing battle AZ is having with the Feds as Governor Brewer tries to stem the flow of illegals. From Homeland Security NewsWire:

Border Patrol kiosk detects liars trying to enter U.S

21 August 2012

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is using border crossing stations in Arizona to test new technology to detect liars as they attempt to enter the country; travelers are subjected to a 5-minute interview with the kiosk, while microphones monitor vocal pitch frequency and quality, an infrared camera monitors eye movement and pupil dilation, and a high definition camera monitors facial expression.

Demonstration of the AVATAR kiosk // Source: arizona.edu

The Automated Virtual Agent for Truth Assessments in Real-Time (AVATAR) kiosk interviews travelers while searching for signs of deception.

Doug Derrick, a member of the University of Arizona team developing the AVATAR thinks the kiosk will be a success.

“What we’re looking for is changes in human physiology,” Derrick told CNN. “We’ve had great success in reliably detecting these anomalies — things that people can’t really detect.”

Emergency Management reports that currently, the AVATAR is being tested at the Dennis DeConcini port in Nogales, Arizona on low-risk travelers who have been preapproved by human screeners as part of the CPB’s voluntary Trusted Traveler program. ...

Really? There are so many things I could comment on with this 'news,' but instead I'll suggest you go read the whole story here.