Automatic Thermal Monitoring System (ATHEMOS) for Deception Detection

Pradeep Buddharaju, Jonathan Dowdall, Panagiotis Tsiamyrtzis, Dvijesh Shastri, Ioannis T. Pavlidis, M. G. Frank

Abstract: Previous work has demonstrated the correlation of periorbital perfusion and stress levels in human beings. In this paper, we report results on a large and realistic mock-crime interrogation experiment. The interrogation is free flowing and no restrictions have been placed on the subjects. We propose a new methodology to compute the average periorbital temperature signal. The present approach addresses the deficiencies of the earlier methodology and is capable of coping with the challenges posed by the realistic setting. Specifically, it features a tandem condensation tracker to register the periorbital area in the context of a moving face. It operates on the raw temperature signal and tries to improve the information content by suppressing the noise level instead of amplifying the signal as a whole. Finally, a pattern recognition method classifies stressful (deceptive) from non-stressful (non-deceptive) subjects based on a comparative measure between the interrogation signal (baseline) and portions thereof (transient response).