The truth is out there. . .maybe

    "The check is in the mail."

    How many times have you got that one?

    "It's a special car part. I'm afraid the repair will cost more than we thought"

    Or even . . .

    "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky."
 

    I'm a sucker for lies. If someone tells me something, I tend to swallow it like a bass gobbling down a rubber frog.

    Maybe that's why I still vote in every election.

    But now there's help for the terminally gullible in the form of Truster, an inexpensive new software offering that purports to be able separate truth from lies for anyone with a telephone and computer.

    Truster comes from Trustech Ltd, formerly Makh-Shevet, a small high-tech Israeli company in the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya. It is being distributed in North America by Valencia Entertainment in Valencia, Calif. and Seem Software Corp., Brooklyn, NY.

    The technology behind Truster is based on voice stress analysis. Truster's makers say the software measures normally inaudible low levels in the voice. When a person lies, there is a reduction in blood in the vocal chords as a result of stress which distorts those voice waves. The inventors say with the use of complex algorithms, they can decode those stress levels or "microtremors"  into indicators of excitement, exaggeration, or outright lying.

    This kind of technology is not new. Computer voice stress analysis has been around for years and first reached general acceptance in the U.S. during the Vietnam War. According to the National Institute for Truth Verification, there are more than 600 police forces in the United States alone using voice stress analysis systems costing between $5,000 and $8,000. It also costs about $10,000 to train someone to use those machines.

     The Truster program was developed by Amir Lieberman who thought of it initially for use by Israeli security services. A souped-up portable military version has been designed to be used by border guards to screen for potential terrorists.

    Makh-Shevet was a company originally established by some educators in 1981, back in the days when a 286 was a pretty hot computer. The company was purchased in 1991 by Hugh Segal, who developed a number of programs and games for children. In early 1997, Lieberman brought his idea to Segal, who saw potential for the product.

    Since the release of the commercial version, the company has reported sales of about 5,000 units a month - an indication that such a product may have found an untapped market in our cynical and untrusting society.

    To run Truster you need a PC Pentium 100 or faster, Windows 95, a Windows 95-compatible sound card and video card, 16 megabytes of RAM, a CD-ROM and a standard phone.

    The program installs quickly - about 10 minutes, including installing a cable between the PC sound card and telephone. The supplied cable allows a user to carry on a conversation with a phone subject yet still send the interrogation target's voice into the computer.

    Once installed the program is ready to go. But Trustech recommends users read the instruction manual before trying things out.

    When the program is launched, the user is confronted with a pleasantly designed window, that reminds me of an one of those fancy computer CD players. There's a simple menu at the top which includes Files, Background Level, Sensitivity And Working Speed. The Files menu gives access to saved reports you have made of conversations as well as a quit program option. The Background Level menu entry allows you to set the level of noise from Minimal, Low, and High. The Sensitivity menu allows you to make a setting dependant on how trusted you think the test subject is - from Low, Regular, Telepathic and Auto. Telepathic, for example, would be the setting to put Truster on if you were talking to Bill Clinton about Monica Lewinsky or Lucien Bouchard about how clear he plans to make the next referendum question. And finally, the working speed is simply slow, medium or fast.

    In addition there are buttons to Start Test, Stop Calibration, and Show Profile and Reports.

    There is also a panel showing a series of round red and green lights If there are a lot of green lights the subject is probably telling the truth. If there is a lot of red lights, the subject is excited about what they are saying, and Truster then uses its analysis tools to determine if the person is lying. Another panel about the lights will flash messages such as False, or Truth, or Outsmart, or Excitement, etc.

    When the conversation is over, Truster will produce a report about the dialogue, giving an overall impression of the session. Offering revelations such as "The subject was very excited during the conversation", or "The subject was inaccurate several times". At the end of the report, it comes to a conclusion like "Based on the results the subject tends to exaggerate".

    Now for the $179 U.S. question (the suggested price for Truster).

    Does it really work?

    Trustech says the program is 85 per cent accurate, although there are some indications that estimate might be a tad optimistic. Newsweek, for example, gave it a try and came up with correct readings about half of the time. I got about the same results when I tried it, although sometimes, it was unnervingly right on the mark.

    The makers say that it is vital to get a good stress-free calibration session from the subject before the interview begins. As well, they say, the interviewer has to be very practiced in how to read the results of Truster. They also say the test does not work well on those who are comfortable misleading people.

    President Bill Clinton's famous "I did not have sex with that woman" speech was recorded and tested with Truster, which determined that he was telling the truth, although it showed he was under a lot of stress. His later admission may seem to damage Truster's reputation, but we should keep in mind that Mr. Clinton is a politician and politicians are generally regarded as being expert making the truth bend their way.

    Finally, Truster's makers say you can get best results if the subject does not know they are being tested.

    And that is what scares me.

    The legal ramifications are somewhat unclear, since you are not actually making a surreptitious recording of a conversation, but rather analyzing it. There are still, however, some ethical considerations.

    If an employer uses Truster, trying to find out if employees are taking drugs, stealing company property, or similar offences, it may be a valid use of the technology. But if they also use it to find out absolutely private details about an employee, such as health or mental problems, love affairs and similar information an employer might feel would impinge on productivity, that employee might have cause to complain about an invasion of privacy - if they ever found out.

    And I find something unsettling about living in a world where your every conversation may be wired to a truth machine by the government, police or even just your next door neighbor.

    To be honest with you, I'm taking Truster off my computer. I prefer to be gullible.

    Honest.