November 23, 2005: An Israeli firm has
developed a new lie detector that requires only that the subject wear a
telephone headset (to hear the questions, and answer with either "yes" or
"no".) It takes about a minute to test each subject. The GK-1 has been tested
at a Russian airport, and found that it did catch passengers who were up to no
good. Like all lie detectors, the GK-1 device detects stress, so it also
identified about twelve percent of the passengers as possibly guilty because
there was stress in their voice when they answered questions. These are
questioned further to eliminate them as passengers who are up to no good
(terrorists, smugglers, or criminals on the lam.) The Russians want to use the
device to screen for terrorists, but don't want to do it the Israeli way (which
uses trained screeners, which are expensive and take time to train, and
screening takes several minutes per passenger, on average.) For other
countries, GK-1 equipment can be quickly deployed at airports when there is a
higher risk of terror alert. Each GK-1 system costs about $30,000, although the
price would come down as more were manufactured. The most expensive component
is the software, and research required to develop it.
