Polygraph Machine

Neil Quinn
John Zwarich
Introduction
A polygraph machine is
an instrument that
simultaneously records
changes in physiological
processes such as
heartbeat, blood
pressure, and respiration.

Our project will collect
and analyze these signals
and output a certainty
factor associated with
each question.
Initial Objectives
Uses:
Lie detection for a wide variety of users:
- Criminal interrogation
- Interviewing processes
- Employee analysis
Other Features:
-Monitoring of signals for health reasons
-Healthy values compared to test data
-PC based GUI for displaying signals
-Adaptive algorithm for better patient compatibility

Physiological conditions to be measured:
-Heart rate
-Blood pressure
-Respiration rate / depth
-Perspiration
Initial Specifications

Technical Specs:

Heart rate accuracy: >90%
Electrical noise (60hz) must be filtered
Output results within 30 seconds of initial question
Output accuracy exceeding 50%. (random guessing)

Estimated Cost:

Heart Rate/Pressure Transducer ~ $200
Respiration Transducer ~ $100
DSP chip and board ~ $300
Amplifiers ~ $15
Analogue Filters ~ $10

Building our project
Inputs:
The initial signal conditioning circuit gave us
poor results.

Differential Op-Amp
Gain = 10
Low-Pass Filter
Gain = 47
F
c
= 33 Hz
Design Review
Adjustments made:

amplifier / filter had to be redesigned several times to get a good
signal

Physiological signals simplified to heart rate and pressure

DAQ board used to record and output signals for testing purposes

Output of DAQ board needed an additional filter to smooth response
Pressure Transducer
Instrumentation
Amplifier
High-Pass Filter
Oscilloscope
PC (Labview)
Low-Pass Filter
Amplifier
TI DSP
MatLab GUI
Pressure Transducer
Blood Pressure Cuff to acquire
input signal

MicroSwitch 120PC Pressure
Transducer to get differential
voltage


Pressure Transducer Specs:
- 0-5 psi range
- 115mV full scale output
- Sensitivity: 23mV / psi
- 12v supply voltage
- response time: 1ms max
Instrumentation
Amplifier
More suited for our purposes because:

- provides a maximum gain of 4577

- easily adjustable gain

- eliminates common mode signals
(from arm movements, etc)

- specifically recommended for
pressure sensing lines
Vout = ( 1 + 2R/Rg ) (V2 V1)
Measured Low Pass Filter Response
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
frequency (Hz)
v
o
l
t
a
g
e
Low-Pass Filter, F
c
= 24 Hz
Low-Pass Filter
This filter design is a Sallen-Keys Butterworth filter design.

Advantages:
Faster rolloff rate because of double pole frequency response
Maximally flat pass-band for desired frequencies

High Pass Filter and
Amplifier
Design Advantages:

- like LPF, also a Sallen-Keys
Butterworth filter design

- HPF cutoff at 0.1hz

- final amplifier gives additional boost
to desired range



Total Signal Conditioning Circuit
Instrumentation Amplifier
Max Gain = 4577
Low-Pass Filter
Fc = 24 Hz
High Pass Filter
Fc = 0.1 Hz
Amplifier
Gain = 5
Heartbeat Capture
This output also allowed us to measure the peak-to-peak voltage
and frequency of the signal from the oscilloscope.
Collect Input
Put sample
in Buffer
Write Sample?
Yes
Windowing
FFT Equalization
Find Frequency
W/ Highest Amplitude
Compare Frequency to
Weighted Average of
Past Frequencies
Check
Verification
Update Difference
and Threshold
MATLAB
Output
No
DSP Block Diagram
Frequency Response of DSP
Input Frequency
Response of DSP
was non linear
Equalized response in
DSP Code by
multiplying each fft
bin by appropriate
gain
Testing Phase
Used Labview 6i to collect data through PCI-MIO-16E DAQ
Waveforms stored to files and played back
Files could be converted to spreadsheet format for analysis
Analog output required a LPF

Writefile.vi

-Scans analog input from channel 68 (ACH0)
-Writes data to waveform file
Readfile.vi

-Reads waveform file
-Outputs to channel 21 (DAC0out)
Analog Output Adjustment
Low-Pass Filter
Fc = 5hz
Filtered to avoid zero-order hold effects
Data Samples
Region 1 True Answer
Region 2 False Answer
Region 3 True Answer
Testing and Measurement Statistics
Polygraph Performance
33%
42%
17%
8%
TP - Properly detected lie TN - Properly detected truth
FP - Detected truth, but lie was told FN - Detected lie, but truth was told
Sensitivity - 66% / Specificity - 83%
Accomplishments
Demonstrated functionality of overall circuit in detecting lies
Identified ~80% of lies of testing set
Misidentified ~14% of truths as lies
Far exceeds 50% accuracy expected from random
guessing
Signal conditioning circuitry successfully amplified and filtered
data to suitable range for processing
Demonstrated adaptability across subjects by adjusting to
individuals average heart rate and physiological
responses
Greatly reduced cost from initial estimation


Challenges
Initial amplifier and filters redesigned for better performance
Amplifier instrumentation amp (common mode)
LPF a higher-order design for better dB attenuation slope

Input circuitry overly sensitive to the subjects arm movements

2 Pressure sensors pins got cracked off in testing phase

Labview 6i
Wrote a custom program for reading in waveform
Analog output needed a LPF
Poor documentation

Op-amps clipped with subject movement due to high gain on amplifiers

DSP AC coupling required equalization for low frequencies within the
routine

Other Tests /
Recommendations
Given more time, we would have liked to collect sample
data from a wider range of subjects
It may have been better to spend more money to
purchase an amplified pressure sensor to speed up
construction of hardware
More physiological inputs may improve results
(respiration, electro-dermal)
Investigate other algorithms for low frequency spectral
analysis (zero crossing, peak counting)



Questions?