coollogo_com.18545878 (8699 bytes)

 

Truster FAQ's

         Quick Guide-Trouble Shooting         

HOME

 

What Is The Need?

Ever since people acquired the capability of speech, lying and deception have been inescapable facts of everyday life. Conventional lie detector results are not admissible in court because people can physically alter their behavior to appear to be telling the truth. The human voice on the other hand, cannot be manipulated. It is a complex instrument for expressing a full range of emotional and cognitive states of mind, that even the best voice training in the world cannot overcome. Better yet, vocal segments can be gathered and analyzed over the phone, taken from TV or radio shows, or even in a face to face conversation, without the subject being aware.

What Is It Based On?

Did you know that the human voice consists of six global levels?
1) The textual level - the words we speak.
2) The identifying level - unique elements in every individual's voice.
3) The intonation level - the way we express ourselves.
4) The emotional level - an uncontrolled element of the voice that indicates the level of excitement and the emotions they attach to what they are saying.
5) The cognitive level - an uncontrolled element of the voice that indicates the amount of conflict or agreement with the spoken sentence.
6) The physiological element - indicates the stress, physiological alertness and general physiological condition. Truster technology examines the emotional, cognitive and physiological patterns in our voice to deliver accurate messages regarding vocal segments of a conversation or broadcast.

How Does It Work?

Truster technology produces a computerized analysis of the speech flow to distinguish between nonverbal emotional, cognitive and stressful elements within the human voice. When all is said and done, a lie is a deviation from how one would answer an obvious question such as, What is your name? A subject may answer the exact same question differently in different situations. For example, the reaction to asking a subject how much money they made in a certain period will vary depending on whether it is during a free conversation, job interview, or legal proceeding. Lying or attempting to be faithful to the truth requires much more exertion than answering an obvious question, but it also depends on the circumstances.

The Truster technology's unique ability to mathematically calculate emotion in the human voice makes it one of the most important breakthroughs in the field of vocal lie and feeling detection. The operator's level of expertise at testing subjects and interpreting the data, combined with the awareness that different contexts can produce different outcomes, is the key to achieving accurate results.

What Do The Results Mean?

The proper interpretation of the results is crucial to the process. There are three main indications that a person is lying. When a person is stressed, confused and excited all at the same time, chances are that they are lying. However, very few people (1%) lie very convincingly without any of the above symptoms because they do not feel that there is anything wrong with lying, and/or they might not feel a need to be faithful to the truth. The system will not detect a lie if a dishonest person claims something happened and genuinely believes it to be true. That is precisely why we recommend using your common sense in analyzing the results Truster products produce

Try to focus on finding deviations in the results. For example, an honest person may get stressed, confused and excited while trying to stick to facts exactly as they remembered them. An honest person may feel that they are speaking the truth but actually be lying to themselves. A person may state that they are going to overcome certain obstacles, but may not truly believe in their capability to do so. Truster technology will pick that up as a deviation, but it certainly does not mean that the subject is dishonest. They may merely be inaccurate, or unsure of their words, as the system will display throughout the conversation.

Therefore, we recommend using your common sense to evaluate the results, by considering the specific context of the conversation. Truster technology is recognized as the most accurate tool for detecting emotions in the human voice. The personal version, called Truster, is best utilized as a decision support tool.

 

How does Truster work?
Truster searches for cognitive messages in the human voice. These messages appear during a conversation as a result of conflicts that we have in our minds regarding various issues in the conversation. Truster measures 5 different parameters in the voice with the help of an intelligent algorithm. The Truster technology is being offered as a lie detector, and we are also working on a tool for psychiatrists. The technology is considered controversial since it is essentially monitoring events that are going on inside our heads.

Will there be more products based on the Truster technology?
At the moment we have released the first product in the range, called Truster. This unit monitors vocal segments in the online mode, and can be operated through the phone or in a face-to-face conversation. The next product, TrusterPro also achieves a high level of accuracy analyzes in the offline mode. TrusterPro includes a comprehensive method for recording conversations and broadcasts, as well as automatically analyzing them. Scientific research that was conducted on TrusterPro indicated a level of accuracy that matched the Polygraph. We consider that a breakthrough achievement in this field.

I told my friend to tell a lie but Truster did not detect it. Why?
"I had lunch with Donald Trump today." Whenever people install Truster, the first person they call is usually a friend who is aware of their new online lie detector. These are usually situations where people are just joking around and not telling lies that would cause them extreme stress or confusion. Truster is designed to be used in a stress-free conversation where the subject is not planning the lies (i.e. famous Mafia cases). If the subject needs to lie, the need should arise as a surprise, resulting in 95% of the extreme vocal changes that Truster detects. Even the most honest person could be lying to themselves about something, or have difficulties recalling an event accurately. Truster will indicate that this person is either confused or being untruthful.

What are all those letters on the graphs?
They are abbreviations:

S.P.T.
Samples per Thorn

S.P.J.
Samples per Jump

JQ
Jumps standard error

AVJ
Average Jump length

They are technical names representing pure numbers.

I got different messages when asking the same person the same question. Why?
The results you get really depend on the context of the situation. Controlled (i.e. job interview, interrogation) or spontaneous environments (free conversation) will yield very different results. We are testing cognitive stress in the speech, so when lies are not pre-planned the lie stress will appear in a dramatic way. In a controlled environment, lies may appear in several ways starting with extreme excitement, extreme stress, and even extremely low cognitive stress. That is why the tester must analyze the controlled environment conversation manually.

How long does it take Truster to analyze the subject's voice ?
There is only a half second delay between the live voice and the result.
How long does it take to calibrate the subject's voice?
The calibration is the most important part of the test. If you adjusted your computer's microphone as specified in the User Guide, the calibration process should only take up to 10 seconds. In that time, Truster gathers six different samples of the subject's voice to base the test on.

What if the subject has a cold? Will Truster still work?
The same subject can sound different at various times in the day and that is why we recommend calibrating before each conversation. It is advised not to check people that have any kind of sickness that can alter the way they normally express themselves. If there is no choice, be aware of the general deviation in the voice while interpreting results.

What is the basis for asserting that Truster is highly accurate?
We recommend that you use Truster as a decision-support tool and not rely solely on its results to make decisions. It has been tested and approved by experts worldwide but much of the interpretation phase has to do with the expertise of the person asking the questions.

 

Truster Quick Guide
Five easy steps to get started

#1 Software Installation Insert your Truster CD into the CD-ROM drive. The setup program will start automatically. If it does not, click on My Computer and then click on the CD-ROM drive holding Truster. The setup program will complete a full installation of the program files into the following directory: C:\PROGRAM FILES\TRUSTER, or another of your choice. You can start Truster by clicking the Truster icon in the Programs folder in your Start menu.

#2 Registration After starting Truster for the first time, the License Agreement will appear. Accept the agreement terms by clicking "Accept" and the Registration screen will pop up. Fill in your CD NUMBER exactly as it appears on the last page of the User Guide. Call the registration center for your KEY CODE (don't close this window until you have received this code).

#3 Hardware Installation Look for the enclosed telephone-computer connector (the black box with two wires). To install it, unplug the telephone handset wire from the side of the phone, and insert the connector's plug in its place (2). Then plug the telephone handset wire into the connector device (1). You have one thin cord left on the connector (3) - connect it to the LINE IN socket on the sound card, at the back of your PC. Now your phone is connected to your computer.

connect.gif (4034 bytes)

#4 Sound Adjustment This is where you adjust the volume and recording levels in your PC so it can pick up sounds. You have already attached the connector, but your computer needs to hear what is being said on the phone in order for Truster to work. Select FILE on the Truster menu, and MIXER. The mixer box will open and all you have to do is accept the new settings. You can adjust the volume while you are there to ensure optimal reception.

#5 Calibration Just like you tune your radio to a certain channel, Truster needs to be tuned to the frequency of the speaker's voice. Calibration at the beginning of each conversation helps the program adjust to background noise, the quality of the phone line and the particular person speaking. Keep in mind that even the same subject may have different intonations in their voice at various hours of the day.

After performing all of the above steps (software and hardware installation, registration, and sound adjustment) open Truster, and call someone to run your first calibration. The moment your subject starts talking during your first calibration the lights should start moving one after another. (If they do not - you need to retrace the four steps). Keep the questions simple during this phase to produce truthful answers, just like they do at the beginning of lie detector tests on TV i.e. What is your name? Where do you live? How are you?

The calibration process at the beginning of each conversation is automatically activated when the subject begins talking. The system is designed to block out your voice during a phone conversation, and only concentrate on analyzing the subject's voice. Once the brief calibration is completed, the system will automatically start a real session. Please be aware that it takes the system a couple of seconds to switch from performing a calibration to analyzing a real session. At this point you should still ask an additional three or four 'neutral' questions that will produce truthful answers, before getting to what you are really interested in finding out.

** For more detailed information about using Truster please refer to the User Guide you received with the software package.

 

 

Solutions to Common Problems

I just installed the TRUSTER and its interface doesn't look proper.  The lights are not in place.

Solution:
Uninstall the TRUSTER properly (through the 'Add/Remove Programs' which can be accessed by clicking on the START, then SETTINGS, and CONTROL PANEL).  Changes the desktop area to 640x480 with 256 colors and then reinstall Truster.  After the installation, you can restore the previous settings and resolution

I can't see the lights in my TRUSTER when it's running although the program seems to be running well.

Solution:
The problem lies with the computer video-adapter.  Although there are no lights, the TRUSTER will respond to a voice input.  There is a way to make the lights appear, but it is not recommended as it will affect other programs under Windows95.  Open SYSTEM in the CONTROL PANEL.  Press the tag PERFORMANCE and then click on GRAPHICS in the lower part of the window.  Move the slider HARDWARE ACCELERATION away from full.

I inserted the cord connected to my telephone into the LINE IN socket of my sound-card, but there is no voice entry.

Solution:
Insert the cord into the MIC IN socket instead.

I pushed the START TEST button and nothing is happening.  I see the message 'Calibrating...', but the lights don't move.

Solution:
On the taskbar of Windows95/98, there is a picture of a little yellow speaker: speaker.gif (116 bytes).  Double click on it and the VOLUME CONTROL table will open.  Click OPTIONS in the menu and choose PROPERTIES.   From the new table, choose RECORDING.  Check the boxes next to 'Line-In' and 'Microphone' and click 'OK':

 

The RECORDING CONTROL will appear.  Make sure the 'Select' box under the 'Line-In' and 'Microphone' is checked.   If you can only check one at a time, prefer 'Microphone' and make sure the cord is connected to the 'Mic-In' socket in the sound-card.  Push the slider to the top.   Finally run the TRUSTER again.

I just followed the above instructions and there is still no voice entry (i.e. it is stuck at 'Calibrating...').

Solution:
Close down the TRUSTER.  From the START button, go to PROGRAMS, then ACCESSORIES, MULTIMEDIA, and run the 'Sound Recording' program.  Click the 'Record' button (the one with the red circle) to start recording.  If the green line changes and becomes wavy, there is voice entry, and the TRUSTER should work.  If not, go to RECORDING CONTROL again.  In the OPTION meny, check the line 'Advanced Controls'.  A new button labeled 'Advanced' will appear under the 'Microphone' row.  Click it and a new window will appear.  On the bottom, make sure the 'Microphone Gain Control' or 'AGC' is checked.  Now run TRUSTER again.

The TRUSTER is working, but it tells me that everyone is a liar.

Solution:
While the TRUSTER is running, open the RECORDING CONTROL.  While talking into a mic or on the phone, lights should appear in a panel or a box next to the recording main slider.  If more than 1 red box appears, lower the 'Microphone' and 'Line-In' sliders until 1 red box appears.