The Economist: Watch That Twitch
Aug 16, 2007, 6:48 am
#31
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Roanoke, VA
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Or what if you've just had the Kung Pao? (George likes his chicken spicy, you know!)
Aug 16, 2007, 6:51 am
#32
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 1,441
There is good news and there is bad news.
The good news is intelligent people who are very highly trained can pick out many behaviours through reading gesture - whether of face or body. It goes much deeper than observing is someone is merely twitching.
The work of Dr. Paul Erdman in classifying facial expressions and gestrure over the past 30 years demonstrates this pretty well.
The bad news is that you must have trainable people who undergo long and careful education in the methodology. This means that it will never be implemented above the "paint by numbers" level thorugh group as large and as .... er, ... well not intelligent as the average TSA screener.
Just for fun, try this superficial facial test. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbo...es/index.shtml
Important, too, is to remember that these techniques do not enable complete mind reading ... but they can be a very important help in flagging people for more scrutiny. On of the most important things to train is respect for the limitations of the training!
The good news is intelligent people who are very highly trained can pick out many behaviours through reading gesture - whether of face or body. It goes much deeper than observing is someone is merely twitching.
The work of Dr. Paul Erdman in classifying facial expressions and gestrure over the past 30 years demonstrates this pretty well.
The bad news is that you must have trainable people who undergo long and careful education in the methodology. This means that it will never be implemented above the "paint by numbers" level thorugh group as large and as .... er, ... well not intelligent as the average TSA screener.
Just for fun, try this superficial facial test. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbo...es/index.shtml
Important, too, is to remember that these techniques do not enable complete mind reading ... but they can be a very important help in flagging people for more scrutiny. On of the most important things to train is respect for the limitations of the training!
Aug 16, 2007, 12:02 pm
#33
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Thanks. And I own have read several of his books, too! 
I am always calling my children by the wrong name, too.
Paul Erdman, of course, is an ex-banker/novelist who writes (wrote?) financial thrillers.
Funny thing is that I revisited the site linked to just yesterday inspired by watching a wave of YouTube clips of ranking administration officials recorded before the invasion of Iraq proclaiming that we might be under the danger of a nuclear attack from Saddam. Looking for tells.
There is another link to experiments regarding spotting a person telling the truth vs. a lie: http://www.richardwiseman.com/quirkology/lyingexpt.html
I am always calling my children by the wrong name, too.
Paul Erdman, of course, is an ex-banker/novelist who writes (wrote?) financial thrillers.
Funny thing is that I revisited the site linked to just yesterday inspired by watching a wave of YouTube clips of ranking administration officials recorded before the invasion of Iraq proclaiming that we might be under the danger of a nuclear attack from Saddam. Looking for tells.
There is another link to experiments regarding spotting a person telling the truth vs. a lie: http://www.richardwiseman.com/quirkology/lyingexpt.html