Deception Detection Technology Company Credibility Assessment Technologies Inc. Changes Name to Converus Inc.
The new company name, meaning “with truth,” more accurately represents the company’s mission of providing innovative technology for deception detection. Converus launches its first product, EyeDetect, in Mexico next month. EyeDetect, conceived in 2002 by the same scientists who invented the computerized polygraph in 1991, is an ocular-motor deception test product that is the result of 10 years of research and development.
Credibility Assessment Technologies Inc. has changed its name to Converus Inc. The name is derived from two Latin words: “con” meaning “with,” and “verus” meaning “truth.”
The company is the first to create a deception detection product based on an ocular-motor deception test (ODT). The product, called EyeDetect, uses a high-speed eye tracker to measure subtle changes in the eye and then combines the measures in a mathematically optimal manner to detect deception. Scientists John Kircher and Doug Hacker originally conceived EyeDetect in 2002. They recognized the need to find an alternative deception detection method that could complement the polygraph; with the objective of making sure their new method was accurate, efficient, objective and nonintrusive.
Kircher, along with noted polygraph expert David Raskin, are credited with computerizing the polygraph in 1991.
In 2003, Kircher and Hacker, along with cognitive scientists Anne Cook and Dan Woltz, formed a science team to produce and validate an ODT solution for deception detection. Raskin joined them in 2009. All five currently comprise the Converus science team.
“These scientists have done a remarkable job in creating a new, proven deception detection method to help combat corruption and fraud worldwide. We feel the market will embrace this new technology,” said Converus CEO and President Todd Mickelsen.
Mickelsen says the company plans to initially target businesses that are seeking an accurate, cost-effective, efficient, secure, and noninvasive method for pre-employment and periodic employee screening.
In 2006, after completing substantial testing of this concept, a University of Utah psychology graduate student working with this science team published the scientists’ findings. This report documented the first field study and proved the technology worked. A second formal scientific study conducted and published in 2008 confirmed the effectiveness of the ODT technology.
After Kircher introduced entrepreneur Donald R. Sanborn to the ODT technology in 2009, a company was formed to bring this technology to the market, and Sanborn was made the company’s first CEO.
Additional field studies were conducted in 2012, and the results were peer reviewed by other scientists and professors and published that year in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. Sanborn stepped down as CEO at the close of the year to become a board member.
Alta Ventures — an early-stage venture capital fund based in Monterrey, Mexico that provides seed, venture and growth capital — invested in the company in January 2013 with the objective of accelerating the commercialization of the technology. Software industry veteran Greg Parkinson was hired as the chief software architect in March. Mickelsen, with a track record of successfully bringing technology to the market, became the new Converus CEO in October 2013.
Converus plans an official launch of EyeDetect this April, starting in Mexico.
Jeff Pizzino, APR
480-606-8292
jeff@pizzinovations.com
About Converus
Converus (“with truth”) is committed to providing trustworthy, technological solutions for deception detection. EyeDetect™, a product 10 years in the making, is the first ocular-motor deception test (ODT) solution for deception detection. The same scientists credited with computerizing the polygraph in 1991 created it. EyeDetect is an accurate, cost-effective, efficient, secure, and noninvasive method for businesses to manage risk and ensure workplace integrity, and for law enforcement agencies and governments to detect deception. The company was formed in 2009 and is currently headquartered in Lehi, Utah, USA. For more information, visit www.converus.com.
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