Detecting active cannabis tampering from eye movements?
A scanner more accurate than a human policeman! A Montana-based company called Gaize has developed a device that can scan the user's eye and use crazy futuristic robotic intelligence to detect the presence of THC. According to the company's founder, Ken Fichtler, American law enforcement agencies have already agreed to use this technology, without however being able to specify which ones.
"I'm going to preface all of this by saying I'm pro cannabis. I am for the legalization of cannabis. I'm doing this because I see a distinct need at the federal level to have a product to detect impairment so we can keep the roads safe,” Fichtler said.
The device looks like a kind of helmet of virtual reality that the police officer would place on the head of a driver suspected of having smoked joints. The suspect is placed in darkness for a few moments before a bright light is projected so that the movement of the arrested person's eyeballs can be electronically scanned.
“The eyes are the window to the soul. The eyes provide a remarkably clear picture of a person's mental state. They are full of involuntary micro-movements and reflex responses that convey information about a person's weakness or sobriety,” reads the website. Gaze.
According to Mr. Fichtler, the scan cannot be used as evidence in court, like a traditional breathalyzer, but the police can use it in the field if they suspect someone is under the influence of alcohol, in order to completely eliminate their own prejudices. Gaize can't yet quantify impairment like a traditional breathalyser does, but it can essentially tell if the person is intoxicated enough that their eye reacts to a stimulus differently than it normally would.
You can't just measure THC and say, "Yes, okay, this person is stoned because they have five nanograms of THC in their body, it doesn't work that way." What we're doing is directly measuring how impairment manifests in the body, which I think is a much more rational, measured, and fairer path,” Fichler said.
According to Fichtler, the test is based on several different studies that have spanned the past 40 years, including a clinical trial of 350 participants that Gaize conducted himself, one of largest clinical trial in the world. A quick search for "how cannabis affects eye movement" indeed shows several peer-reviewed studies on the subject, dating back to at least 1979. As is the case with most scientific studies, there are a large margin for error or misinterpretation, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find much that would challenge the science behind this technology. It turns out that eyeballs are just dirty little snitches that sell out smokers all the time.
“There are a lot of changes happening and a lot of them happening on a scale that a human wouldn't necessarily be able to see unless they were looking very closely or even using a magnifying glass or something. Our product is sensitive enough to detect these really minute changes,” Fichtler said.
Mr. Fichtler made it clear that Gaize won't arbitrarily sell its technology to be used for malicious purposes, but if you do a dangerous job or like to get high on your morning commute, you might soon find yourself staring at the bright light of a Gaize helmet.
Mr. Fichrler was unable to provide a specific date when law enforcement might start using the helmets, but it would appear that a nondisclosure agreement has been signed.
"The system is being evaluated by some leading services," Fichtler said. “Not all of them have adopted it yet, but some have. My hope is that within a few years it will become some sort of standard practice. »
