The Voice Risk Analysis or VRA, also called Voice Stress Analysis (VSA), is a lie detection technology developed by Digilog. It works by detecting the changes in the voice of the subject when he is lying. It will be used by the London Borough of Harrow council during one year to test its reliability fighting benefit claim frauds[1]
VRA technology works by measuring slight, inaudible fluctuations in the human voice known as 'micro-tremors' that indicate when a speaker delivers words under stress, and when those moments of stress are generated by an attempt to deceive. Voice patterns are analysed and displayed on a computer.
Research by Anders Eriksson and Francesco Lacerda has claimed that this technology is "at the astrology end of the spectrum" of reliability. The UK newspaper The Guardian claimed about the UK Department for Work and Pensions that data from trials between May 2007 and July 2008 show that at more than half the locations studied results were no better than random[2].
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