Apple Watch to Act as Lie Detector
Everyone knows that the Apple Watch can measure the wearer’s pulse, using sensors inside the four rings on the back of the watch. Normal heart rate monitors rely on skin conductivity, but Apple took the Apple Watch in a different direction, instead using infrared and visible-light LEDs along with photosensors. Pulse tracking may be useful for exercisers, and Apple has made much of how you can send your heartbeat to a loved one.
But if it struck you that Apple must have larger plans for these sensors, you’re not wrong. The question is not what the Apple Watch can sense, but what can be determined from what it does sense. What causes your heart rate to increase, apart from exercise? Try stress.
The first indication that Apple has something up its sleeve came in the form of a quickly deleted tweet from model and runner Christy Turlington, Apple’s poster child for using the Apple Watch in her marathon training. She wrote that her Apple Watch accused her of lying about how a long run had gone.
Accused her of lying? Discussing this with a long-time Apple developer who wished to remain anonymous revealed hints of a private API in the Apple Watch software development kit. Currently available only to Apple, the API goes by the name TruthKit, and returns a range of values that report on the delta between the current and recent past heart rates, among much else.
It sounds as though Apple is using the Apple Watch’s sensors as a mini lie detector, not so much to rat you out to your spouse (since it was on Turlington’s watch, not her husband’s), but to help you realize when you’re playing fast and loose with the truth.
But perhaps Apple will make it possible to share that information with trusted parties, much as you might share your location with your spouse via Find My Friends. It’s the ultimate statement of trust — your Apple Watch could prove that you’re telling the truth about not chatting up your ex-girlfriend on Facebook. The question is if TruthKit will ever be made available to developers, so apps could tell when you’re stressed while using them. How long before the first mood ring app extends itself to the Apple Watch?
The real win might come with Apple Pay, which already offers industry-leading security when it comes to storing and transmitting payment information in a way that can’t be compromised. Where Apple Pay is having problems, though, is with stolen credit card numbers being registered into the system (see “Apple Pay Exposes Insecure Bank Policies,” 18 March 2015). If the Apple Watch could transmit a “confidence score” of stress related to a transaction, banks would be better able to identify fraudulent transactions.
Of course, such a system could run afoul of false positive stress from other situations. Imagine someone using Apple Pay to buy a wedding ring — an expensive, meaningful purchase. It would be entirely understandable if such a purchase resulted in an increased heart rate without there being any intent to deceive.
Maybe they're planning to check the data from your watch when they ask you at the genius bar if you've accidently dropped your computer...
You have to assume that Apple has a backdoor way of reading this data...
It was a request from religious groups because it's a sin to tell a lie
So what do we do? It's clear that Google is attempting to create something sinister. The people in those Android Wear commercials with the spastic moves and the vapid smiles are clearly not in control of themselves, but are clearly being controlled by their watches. And now Apple is putting lie detectors on our wrists that can be no doubt be used for sinister purposes.
You have in house security experts, Adam. Do they think some kind of metallized headwear (maybe something with tin) would help?
I think full-body Faraday cages are the way to go.
An aerospace engineer once told me that small Faraday cages are easy to make. But the larger you make them the more likely they may not work. They may actually increase your connection with the outside world instead of isolating. Also, the shape may be important.
April fools Adam??
My Apple Watch says... "No, he's telling the complete truth."
There's a reason lie detector results are not admissible in US courts. They don't work.
The only time a lie can reliably be determined is when the subject is intimidated into confessing and provides verifiable information of their guilt.
Some operators may well believe in their skills but so do some psychics. It's really the same principle at work in both cases. The machine just obscures the fact that it is the operator's intuition and personal biases at work. Also no operator is going to allow 100 out of 100 people to pass or conversely, to fail. His own personal thresholds would have to be adjusted.