Post by celine on Feb 15, 2015 19:07:37 GMT -5
Phil Chuppa
"A REVOLUTIONARY SCIENTIFIC TECHNOLOGY TO DETECT WHETHER SPECIFIC INFORMATION IS IN A PERSON'S BRAIN OR NOT."
Grinder's case was the first time Farwell's technique was used in an investigation, but it wasn't the last. Farwell tested the device on two other convicted murderers in the following years, Terry Harrington in Iowa and Jimmy Ray Slaughter in Oklahoma, before moving the technique to a bigger stage. Farwell founded a company, Brainwave Sciences, to build ready-made brain-reading rigs that could be deployed on a mass scale. Naturally charismatic, Farwell was a hit with the media, feted by major outlets from 60 Minutes to Time. In 2013, Brainwave Sciences made its first sale to Singapore's police force. Since then, the technique has also popped up in Indian courts, used with Farwell's blessing. In August, the Florida State Police bought another batch of the devices for everyday use. Krishna Ika, Brainwave's CEO, describes the product as "a revolutionary scientific technology to detect whether specific information is in a person's brain or not." Based on the company's testing, Ika says he's seen an accuracy rate of "close to 100 percent."
But as the technique has spread, it's also struggled to shake accusations of shoddy testing, inflated claims, or even outright pseudoscience. Farwell has conducted extensive testing, but it's all been behind closed doors, whether it's with government agencies or prospective clients. He maintains that his test is based on solid neuroscience and that it's never produced a false result, but academic neuroscientists complain that his methods are effectively secret and have never been subject to public review. As Farwell's technique arrives in police stations and courtrooms, it raises a serious question: when Farwell looked into J. B. Grinder's mind, how much could he really see?
Is 'brain fingerprinting' a breakthrough or a sham?
In 1999, a woodcutter named James B. Grinder confessed to a 15-year-old murder, the death of a 25-year-old woman named Julie Helton. A short time later, he recanted, contradicting himself over and...
WWW.THEVERGE.COM
www.theverge.com/2015/2/2/7951549/brain-fingerprinting-technology-unproven-courtroom-science-farwell-p300
Phil Chuppa Attach two pieces of conductive material to a person's scalp, forming a circuit, and you can begin to pick up on what's happening inside. Monitor the circuit, and you'll get a wave-like reading, a constant ebb and flow of electrical activity. Once you're accustomed to the rhythms, you can pick out disturbances, which often lead back to specific events in the brain. The test is called an electroencephalogram or EEG, and it's one of the most common ways to check patients for seizures or abnormal brain activity.
"A REVOLUTIONARY SCIENTIFIC TECHNOLOGY TO DETECT WHETHER SPECIFIC INFORMATION IS IN A PERSON'S BRAIN OR NOT."
Grinder's case was the first time Farwell's technique was used in an investigation, but it wasn't the last. Farwell tested the device on two other convicted murderers in the following years, Terry Harrington in Iowa and Jimmy Ray Slaughter in Oklahoma, before moving the technique to a bigger stage. Farwell founded a company, Brainwave Sciences, to build ready-made brain-reading rigs that could be deployed on a mass scale. Naturally charismatic, Farwell was a hit with the media, feted by major outlets from 60 Minutes to Time. In 2013, Brainwave Sciences made its first sale to Singapore's police force. Since then, the technique has also popped up in Indian courts, used with Farwell's blessing. In August, the Florida State Police bought another batch of the devices for everyday use. Krishna Ika, Brainwave's CEO, describes the product as "a revolutionary scientific technology to detect whether specific information is in a person's brain or not." Based on the company's testing, Ika says he's seen an accuracy rate of "close to 100 percent."
But as the technique has spread, it's also struggled to shake accusations of shoddy testing, inflated claims, or even outright pseudoscience. Farwell has conducted extensive testing, but it's all been behind closed doors, whether it's with government agencies or prospective clients. He maintains that his test is based on solid neuroscience and that it's never produced a false result, but academic neuroscientists complain that his methods are effectively secret and have never been subject to public review. As Farwell's technique arrives in police stations and courtrooms, it raises a serious question: when Farwell looked into J. B. Grinder's mind, how much could he really see?
Is 'brain fingerprinting' a breakthrough or a sham?
In 1999, a woodcutter named James B. Grinder confessed to a 15-year-old murder, the death of a 25-year-old woman named Julie Helton. A short time later, he recanted, contradicting himself over and...
WWW.THEVERGE.COM
www.theverge.com/2015/2/2/7951549/brain-fingerprinting-technology-unproven-courtroom-science-farwell-p300
Phil Chuppa Attach two pieces of conductive material to a person's scalp, forming a circuit, and you can begin to pick up on what's happening inside. Monitor the circuit, and you'll get a wave-like reading, a constant ebb and flow of electrical activity. Once you're accustomed to the rhythms, you can pick out disturbances, which often lead back to specific events in the brain. The test is called an electroencephalogram or EEG, and it's one of the most common ways to check patients for seizures or abnormal brain activity.