TRUTH MACHINE

You know when someone owes you money but everytime you meet them in the pub they tell you a lie about having to pay a bill or the dog ate their wallet? Well this week's gadget is just what you need for catching the debt dodgers out.

For years scientists have attempted to develop a successful lie detector. In the seventies American researchers developed the Psychological Stress Evaluator (PSE) and the Voice Stress Analyser (VSA). Now these two principles have now been incorporated into the Truth Machine.

Micro tremors in the voice, which are often not detected by the human ear, produce frequency modulations, which are measured. The amplitude of the upper and lower sidebands of the frequency spectrum of the voice is also measured.

The results are analysed and shown visually by the columns of LED lights which range from green (low tension) to red (high tension). The Truth Machine accurately measures changing stress levels in the voice but because each individual's voice reacts differently it is not infallible; the lighting of red LEDs, high stress, is indicative of lying however.

I know just the boy I'm going to be using this on on Saturday night.....