Soon, investigators may ride brain waves to nail culprits

Ranjani Ramaswamy

Mumbai, January 7: WE wasted reams of newsprint wondering if Salman
Khan had indeed been driving that night. His inebriation aside, how
could it have been conclusively verified beyond any doubt that his
was actually the hand on the steering wheel? The truth, concurs Dr C
R Mukundan from NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and
Neural Sciences, Bangalore) lies permanently encoded in Khan's own
brain fingerprint.


``In fact, the Khan case would be an ideal case for brain
fingerprinting, a process which is a gauge of actual experience. The
actual experience of the perpetrator or witness is encoded in a very
specific manner in his brain. This would be revealed during the
course of the EEG (Electroencephalogram) and the carefully formulated
probes used to stimulate his brain waves. Probes are the key words or
phrases compiled with the help of the investigating officers, which
act as a trigger for the person under scrutiny,'' says Mukundan. So,
if there was a red shirt on the crime scene that only the
investigating policemen know about and the words `red shirt' are used
in the probe, the subject's brain waves react in a telling manner,
explains Mukundan, who is developing an indigenous form of brain
fingerprinting in close collaboration with the Forensic Science Lab
in Bangalore. His project has also been granted Rs 70 lakh by the
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting a few months ago.

Mukundan is participating in the All India Annual Conference on
Forensic Science in the city.

Brain fingerprinting was originally developed in the early 1990s by
Dr Lawrence Farwell, who created quite a stir with his patented
technique. Farwell also managed to prove conclusively to the courts,
years after a gruesome murder case, that the prime suspect who had
been convicted for life since 1977, had in fact not committed the
crime. His system has been touted the world over as 100 per cent
accurate and is being used by all major investigation services across
the globe.

``When Farwell's paper came out, the repercussions were of course
phenomenal and we all got excited. But I started taking special
interest two years ago when we were working with the polygraph (lie
detector) machines, which we found very inconvenient. In the
polygraph the machine takes note of the subject's supression or
anxiety in divulging information. But with the brain fingerprinting
we can go beyond that. We can figure out whether a person was
actually on the crime scene or not, and what his subjective
experience really was. In fact, with all this global terrorism,
people are talking of putting gadgets and sensors at all airport
doorways, where the brain fingerprint with the help of visual stimuli
of all passengers would be recorded. So that one can predict if a
person with a `terrorist experience' is boarding the flight and they
can at least be called for questioning,'' adds Mukundan.

So, for those who thought Minority Report was sci-fi, the news is
that the fight for control over the privacy of thoughts has already
begun. Organisations like the Centre for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics
have already begun lobbying against the spurious use of brain
fingerprinting.

Are we up to it?
Will Mumbai have any space for incorporating brain fingerprinting?

All new technology is welcome. Seems exciting, provided it is not too
expensive. — Deputy Commissioner of Police Kanakaratnam.

It's Orwellian, sounds so scary. I would ponder a lot about its
ethics of such a method. — Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime)
Sridhar Vagal.

We are wondering how the information gathered will be admissible in
court. Even for polygraphs there is a set legal procedure... — Joint
Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Ahmed Javed.



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