Voight-Kampff machine
The Voight-Kampff machine or device is a fictional tool originating in Philip K Dick's science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Spelled Voigt-Kampff in the book, it also appeared in the book's screen adaptation, the 1982 film Blade Runner.
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[edit] Operation
The Voight-Kampff is a polygraph-like machine used in the film by Blade Runner units to assist in the testing of an individual to see if he or she is a replicant. It measures bodily functions such as respiration, "blush response", heart rate and eye movement in response to emotionally provocative questions.
Capillary dilation or the so-called blush response … fluctuation of the pupil, involuntary dilation of the iris....
– Dr. Eldon Tyrell, Blade Runner
In the film two replicants take the test: Leon (played by Brion James) and Rachael (played by Sean Young). In Blade Runner, Deckard tells Tyrell that it usually takes 20 to 30 cross-referenced questions to distinguish a replicant. With Rachael it takes more than one hundred. This should be contrasted to the book where it is stated it only takes "six or seven" questions to make a determination.
"A very advanced form of lie detector that measures contractions of the iris muscle and the presence of invisible airborne particles emitted from the body. The bellows were designed for the latter function and give the machine the menacing air of a sinister insect. The VK is used primarily by Blade Runners to determine if a suspect is truly human by measuring the degree of his empathic response through carefully worded questions and statements."
– Description from the original 1982 Blade Runner press kit
[edit] Cultural Impact
In a second season episode of the science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Up the Long Ladder", Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge described how his VISOR was able to determine whether human clones were lying to him, based on "variations in blush-response, pupil dilation, pulse, breath-rate." It is not clear what influence, if any, this phenomenon in Blade Runner (released in 1982) had on Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in the years immediately prior to the release of Star Trek: The Next Generation (in 1987), but the descriptions of the principles behind both technologies are extremely similar.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Sammon, Paul (2004), Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, Orion, ISBN 0752807404
- Kerman, Judith (2003), Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" and Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", Popular Press, ISBN 0879725109
[edit] External links
- Voight-Kampff entry - Official Blade Runner online magazine
- Excerpt describing the machine from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
- Wave Magazine interview of San Francisco mayoral candidates, administering Voight-Kampff test
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