SBIR-STTR Award

We are utilizing the output from eye trackers to develop procedures to identify momentary lapses in alertness. The intent to deceive should be associated with the converse, momentary increases in alertness. We review literature dealing with the issue of deception as reflected in: pupil diameter, saccadic eye movements, eye blinks, minor eye movements,vergence eye movements, and conjugate oculomotor activity, as well as twoaspects of behavior that can be monitored with eye tracker and output froma mouse. The specific question to be investigated in this phase I effortis: Can a battery of bio-behavioral measures (identified above)successfully detect deceptive responses about personally relevantmaterial? We describe the specifics of the experiment to be conducted. Dataanalytic techniques that have already been developed in our laboratorywill be used to evaluate data and identify optimal measures to predictdeception

We propose to run 3 experiments to refine and utilize measures of oculomotor activity and pupil diameter change to assess an individual's malicious or deceptive intent. We also propose to concurrently develop the software and determine the hardware necessary for online, real-time assessment of malintent based on prior research results and the results of the proposed experiments. In addition to oculomotor and pupil activity, we plan on collecting other physiological measures (e.g. electrodermal activity, respiration, cardiovascular measures) with the intent of developing a broader base of measures allowing for assessment of malicious or deceptive intent. Experiments will be conducted within the constraints imposed by the DHS Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) environment. The focus is on measures that can be recorded unobtrusively (without the attachment of sensors) and that can provide immediate feedback.