New software can spot liars accurately

A new software can identify liars more accurately than astute sleuths -- by looking for telltale eye movements, a study reveals.

The software can identify liars with 82.5 percent accuracy. Even cops only achieve around 65 percent accuracy. The software was tested in 40 interviews with volunteers, some of whom were trying to conceal the fact they had hidden a cheque.

The volunteers were asked a series of questions by a retired police investigator to set a 'baseline' reading for their eye movements -- then asked whether they had taken the cheque, reported the Daily Mail.

Ifeoma Nwogu of the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, US, says that the researchers hope to repeat the experiments with larger samples. They also hope to develop the technology to look for other 'tells' that give liars away.

"We know that the eyes give signals that lead to deception, but what about general body movements," asked Nwogu.

"One problem with this research is its over-reliance on the face as the only place to evince information from the body," said retired FBI counter-intelligence special agent Joe Navarro, in an interview.