Face Scans To Detect False Passports

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the face-recognition-that-works? dept

There has been something of a backlash against facial recognition systems used at airports, after most tests found they didn’t work at all – and simply mucked things up with timewasting false positives. However, they’re testing a new system in Australia that works on a slightly different concept. Instead of trying to match faces to a database of known terrorists, this face recognition system just compares your face to your passport photo. Right now, it’s just being used for airline crew – which seems to make a lot of sense. The system has a database of passport pictures, and makes sure that anyone entering with a passport looks like the person they say they are. They say, though, that it may soon get rolled out to the general public – at which point, I wonder if they’ll store a complete database of passport photos for the machines to compare against? Once again, facial recognition systems seem useful in certain, limited domain, situations. For general use, they’re likely to cause more trouble.