Voight-Kampff Machine

The only machine capable of measuring the soul's absence.

The Voight-Kampff machine is a polygraph-like interrogation tool that blade runners use to decide whether someone is a replicant. It comes from Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, where it is spelled "Voigt-Kampff". It measures bodily functions such as respiration, blush response, heart rate and eye movement while the subject answers questions dealing with empathy. Failing the test means execution, which the police call retirement.

Lore & Background

The Voight-Kampff test is designed to distinguish replicants from humans based on their emotional responses to questions. In the film, blade runner Holden administers the test to Leon, but Leon shoots Holden on the second question. Later, Deckard administers the V-K test on a Nexus-6 replicant named Rachael at the request of Tyrell. After a much longer than standard test, Deckard concludes privately to Tyrell that Rachael is a replicant who believes she is human. Tyrell explains that she is an experiment who has been given false memories to provide an 'emotional cushion,' and that she has no knowledge of her true nature. The test distinguishes replicants from humans by provoking emotional responses to questions; a replicant's nonverbal responses differ from a human's.