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No smiling allowed

Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 8:26 pm
by arke
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... nses_N.htm
The serious poses are urged by DMVs that have installed high-tech software that compares a new license photo with others that have already been shot. When a new photo seems to match an existing one, the software sends alarms that someone may be trying to assume another driver's identity.

But there's a wrinkle in the technology: a person's grin. Face-recognition software can fail to match two photos of the same person if facial expressions differ in each photo, says Carnegie Mellon University robotics professor Takeo Kanade.
I'm a bit surprised people smile at all.
In Illinois, photo matching has stopped 6,000 people from getting fraudulent licenses since the technology was launched in 1999, says Beth Langen, the state head of Drivers Services.
In 2000, Illinois had 12,419,293 people. That works out to 0.048% of all people in the state. Granted, not many people smile anyway but this is a ridiculous policy to catch such a tiny amount of people.

Re: No smiling allowed

Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 9:03 pm
by War Machine
And all that just to use security software that fails with apparently any facial gesture. Forget smiling, all you have to do twitch your face a little to get away with it. And what about twins?

I'm betting they wasted shitloads of money on this new technology, what makes them think it's worth it? The fact that it has a very serious flaw or that it catches practically nobody?

Re: No smiling allowed

Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:09 am
by The Herald
1 is still more than 0, and that matters to the American government.

Re: No smiling allowed

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:21 am
by Starnum
What is the percentage of people trying to commit fraud though, that's the real question. Surely it's not everyone, so maybe it's a bit more effective than we're giving it credit for, but I don't know. It still sounds silly to me too but I don't really know enough about it.

Re: No smiling allowed

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:00 am
by War Machine
Starnum wrote:What is the percentage of people trying to commit fraud though, that's the real question. Surely it's not everyone, so maybe it's a bit more effective than we're giving it credit for, but I don't know. It still sounds silly to me too but I don't really know enough about it.
In Illinois, photo matching has stopped 6,000 people from getting fraudulent licenses since the technology was launched in 1999
I think it's much worse than arke made it look, that's not 6,000 people caught in 1999, that's 6,000 people getting caught in a period of 10 years (give or take a couple of years depending on when that statistic was taken). So yeah, nobody.