Speak into the mike, Honest Joe - but be warned.
An advanced computer-based lie detector, developed for the Israeli Secret Service, has arrived in Cape Town. It can tell the difference between a white lie and serious untruths.
The TrusterPro is an innovative truth verification system developed to measure, analyse and classify vocal stress.
Combat Force director Colin Reeves, who is marketing the system, said it also determined whether a speaker's stress was caused by a lie, excitement, an exaggeration or cognitive conflict.
Law enforcement agents, private detectives, human resources managers or companies' loss control departments could verify the truth discreetly.
Reeves said conversations, even via a telephone, could be analysed with a 95 percent degree of accuracy to provide reliable data for making the right decisions.
He said the device recognised the psychological structure of a deceptive comment and pinpointed whether it was simply an inaccuracy or an exaggeration.
Reeves said the assumption was that the higher the stress when the subject was asked a question, the higher the probability of deception.
Like other types of lie detectors, the system uses vocal sensors from, among others, microphones and tapes todetermine the level of honesty by measuring voice stress.
The new system introduces yet another type of technology. When a person talks, air is pushed from the lungs through the vocal cords that vibrate at a certain frequency. From there, the lips, tongue and teeth affect the sound flow.
The vibrations generate a leading frequency. Any event that occurs in the brain - such as confusion or pain - is automatically reflected in the voice.