Maybe the facial recognition technology isn't that good, then
By Martha Entwistle
Updated Mon June 15, 2009
Couldn't pass up an opportunity to be snarky:
Nebraska has started instructing people not to smile for their driver's license photos.
Why?
The new slight-smile rule is part of several security upgrades that will be made to the state's licenses next month. And smiles can cause problems for the facial recognition software Nebraska plans to use.I'm really curious as to which facial recognition software they've invested in (and for what purpose) that doesn't work well if people are smiling. The only guess I can come up with is that they'd have a database of criminal faces and the computer storing the driver's license photos would be linked to that database, identifying matches so that criminals can't get false licenses (otherwise, the name alone would trigger a match with anyone wanted for a warrant or something). And the criminal faces would all be mug shots (not known for containing a lot of smiles, I'm guessing). Still, I wouldn't want to be the salesman trying to push the facial recognition software that only works if the two faces are wearing the same expression. I mean, what happens if the guy grows a mustache? Are you just totally screwed then? Nor would I want to be the guy policing smiles at the DMV: "I'm sorry, ma'am, but that's too much of a smile. We're only allowing a slight smile ... nope, that's still not slight enough ... mmm, okay, a little too frowny, actually, go with slightly more smile ... okay, hold it, hold it - got it. Thanks ma'am, that should be ready in a couple minutes."
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