Arduino Detects Pants on Fire
Hard as it is to imagine, lie detectors have been sold as children’s toys for a number of years. A simple battery-operated device clipped to your fingers and would show the conductivity of your skin. The concept — which is probably not very reliable — observers that lying causes you to imperceptibly sweat which causes a sudden increase in your skin’s conductivity. These cheap toys would have a meter and you’d note the meter deflection to determine if the subject was lying.
You can debate the amusement value of interrogating your friends, perhaps, but they were pretty common and still exist (including some that shock you if they detect you are lying). Seventeen-year-old [BuildIt] has his own modern take on this classic device using — what else? — an Arduino. You can see a video of the device below.
Of interest is how he used the latest version of the Arduino IDE to visualize the data graphically (see right). This is easier than interpreting a bunch of numbers scrolling by on the serial terminal or having to import the data into a spreadsheet. You can find the graph under the Tools menu listed as Serial Plotter.
You don’t need a lot of external parts for this project, although the finger clips and the cardboard box will take a little mechanical skill to complete.
We’ve looked at galvanic skin response and other biosignal processing before. You can do a lot more if you build a little more hardware.
Filed under: Arduino Hacks, Medical hacks
