Using Vibraimage Technology to Analyze the Psychophysiological State of a Person during Opposite Stimuli Presentation

Suspect AI: Vibraimage, Emotion Recognition Technology and Algorithmic Opacity

“…Minkin observes that the vestibular system is linked to certain psychological disorders and argues that its function is intimately connected to emotional and mental states, which he describes as the ‘vestibulo-emotional reflex’ (Minkin & Nikolaenko, 2008). Thus, according to Minkin, data about involuntary head movements can be measured and analysed to generate information about these mental and emotional states, as well as inferring other information, like personality type (Minkin & Nikolaenko, 2017a). 11 Physical balance and stability are directly equated to mental and emotional balance and stability.…”

“…Minkin, like Ekman, references Darwin’s 1872 work on the evolutionary link between facial expression and emotion. While Ekman developed this work by focusing on facial expressions, Minkin examines biological and mathematical links between muscular activity and brain activity, citing nineteenth-century Russian physiologist Ivan Sechenov and others who have contributed to the field of psychophysiology (a branch of psychology exploring links with physiology), including Sigmund Freud and Ivan Pavlov, as well as Norbert Wiener’s theory of cybernetics (Minkin, 2017, pp. 6, 18).…”

“…6, 18). Minkin refers to his theory as ‘the thermodynamic model of emotions’ because he draws a direct link between specific emotional–mental states, muscular activity that can be measured through micro-vibrations of the head, and the energy this muscular activity expends: ‘physiological and psychophysiological processes proceeding in a human body are associated with the exchange of energy and information within or between human physiological systems’ (Minkin, 2017, p. 50). 12 According to this theory, involuntary movement of the face and head is emotion, intention and personality made visible.…”

“…In one article, Minkin and Yana Nikolaenko, Chief Psychologist at ELSYS Russia, state that they aim to ‘introduce…a new term, vestibular emotional reflex or vestibular energy reflex (VER)’ (Minkin and Nikolaenko, 2008, p. 196) but proceed to lay out technical details of vibraimage rather than providing any evidence that such a reflex exists or about the nature of its connection to head movements. Elsewhere, Minkin and Nikolaenko use vibraimage to group ‘criminal’ and ‘non-criminal’ research subjects by personality type (Minkin & Nikolaenko, 2017b). The data itself appear to show a random distribution, but the authors interpret it to fit into a schema of personality types, although there seems no way to verify the accuracy of the way it assigns subjects to personality categories, particularly since their analysis is based on uncovering ‘unconscious’ responses inaccessible to other psychometric approaches.…”

“…Nevertheless, they state that this methodology can be used to predict which personality types are prone to commit crimes: If we assume that the revealed picture of differences between conscious and unconscious responses accurately reflects the hidden information, then this method can be the basis for identifying individuals who intend to commit criminal acts or who are predisposed to commit such acts. (Minkin & Nikolaenko, 2017b, p. 459)…”