Airports will soon add lie detector tests to their security procedures. Several airports in Europe will start using special lie detector machines that use artificial intelligence. The machines are part of a European Union project called i-BorderControl. The first machines will be tested this month at borders in Hungary, Greece and Latvia. Travellers from outside the European Union will take the test. They will look into a webcam and answer questions from a virtual immigration officer. The computer-generated officer will change to be the same as the race and language of the traveller.
The European Union said the virtual border guard will scan passengers' faces and analyze their expressions to find out if the passenger is lying. A human will take over if the lie-detecting software thinks a passenger is lying. Low-risk travellers will be asked about basic information, while higher-risk passengers will get more detailed questions. A psychology expert said the system might not work. He said: "If you ask people to lie, they will do it differently and show very different [behaviour] than if they truly lie....This is a known problem in psychology."