Service Providers Can't Be Honest With Themselves, So How Can They Be Honest With You?

Facial Recognition Software To Tell People They Look Too Young To Smoke

from the prepare-to-show-id-if-you-look-under-30 dept

Tue, Nov 6th 2007 1:34am — Mike Masnick

In the aftermath of 9/11, facial recognition software was a hot topic for a while. The idea was that it could be used to help catch criminals and terrorists as they wandered through cities or airports. There was just one little problem: it didn't work. And, by didn't work, I don't mean it sorta worked some of the time. I mean, it didn't work at all. The places that tested it out soon ditched it as a total waste of time and money. It turns out that making an exact match on faces is not an easy problem, and while the technology may eventually reach that point, it's nowhere near close enough to be useful for things like finding terrorists. That doesn't mean it can't be used in other scenarios, and over in Japan it appears that they're about to put facial recognition to the test as a way of stopping kids from smoking. Yes, one company has integrated facial recognition software with cigarette vending machines, so that it will not sell you your pack of smokes if you happen to have a babyface. You can wonder how effective this might be (my guess: not very effective), but it's still interesting to see those behind facial recognition software looking for different markets where the results don't need to be as perfect.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: age, cigarettes, facial recognition

22 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Brian, 6 Nov 2007 @ 2:57am

Anyone with a brain can just hold up a photo in front of the vending machine?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Duh, 6 Nov 2007 @ 3:00am

Or
Or they could wear an old witch halloween mask.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Trerro, 6 Nov 2007 @ 4:15am

Someone needs to hold up a cat and see if the machine crashes. :P
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Common Sensei, 6 Nov 2007 @ 4:23am

I have a feeling that the oldest-looking kid in school is going to make a "killing", so to speak (why let only the smokes do that job?). At least until they start ID'ing the faces and arresting tobacco-buyers!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Shohat, 6 Nov 2007 @ 5:18am

Bleh
As sad as it is, this just shows that we are living in modern dark ages - no technological development, just slow sluggish progression.
That's what you get when there is not a single war in the whole world. Nobody cares enough to develop anything.

Bleh
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael Whitetail, 6 Nov 2007 @ 5:31am

It wouldnt be difficult to detect a picture being held in front of the sensor as the software is designed to scan a 3 dimensional object, and a 2 dimensional picture wouldn't look like a 'face' to the sensor at all despite being a picture of a face.

Wearing a mask would be harder to detect, but adding a simple thermo sensor to the system would help identify things holding heat back like clothing, plastics, and other non permeable things on the face. Though movie quality latex prosthetics would be a bitch to catch unless you could somehow detect the latex itself.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Frank Mangiapane, 6 Nov 2007 @ 5:34am

Re: Bleh
Yeah you right!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
JustMatt, 6 Nov 2007 @ 6:06am

DoS
Someone could scribble over the sensor, essentially a DoS attack, breaking it for everyone. Do this enough times and the vending machine company will either replace with a non-sensor version or spend a lot of money trying to defeat the dreaded Magic Marker (tm) attack.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 6 Nov 2007 @ 6:25am

Kids smoking is not the real problem here. It is simply a symptom of the real issues at hand. Any doctor will tell you that treating just the symptom, and not the cause, will get you nowhere.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Overcast, 6 Nov 2007 @ 6:32am

Boy, that's Orwellian indeed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
spaghettihead, 6 Nov 2007 @ 8:08am

I guess I'm just relieved that the damn thing doesn't work...yet.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Max Powers at http://ConsumerFight.com, 6 Nov 2007 @ 8:42am

Must be a good salesman
I think if you have a product that is not selling, you find another way to market that product to a different business sector.

I can only imagine where this is going to show up next.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
YEAH!, 6 Nov 2007 @ 8:52am

as soon as i see it ill kick it over.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Not Important, 6 Nov 2007 @ 8:56am

Just a thought
Maybe it SHOULD be used to detect the ages of people. Made mandatory for pro athletes and rappers.

"Sorry, R. Kelly can not pee on you, you're not 18 years of age."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
scornythebeaver, 6 Nov 2007 @ 8:58am

Go Old Fashoined: Get a fake ID
If someone is so addicted to smoking to don "movie quality latex" then they deserve to have the smokes no matter what age they are.
But that being said if they could manage to purchase the high-quality material, there will not be a whole lot of money left over for cigarettes, I'm sure.

However, if they can't get past the sensor, they will just have to do it the old fashioned way: either get a fake ID or count on a minimum-wage teenager working at a convenience store who probably doesn't give a shit about who they sell cigarettes to.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
boost, 6 Nov 2007 @ 10:00am

Re:
Oh, that would be hilarious!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
boost, 6 Nov 2007 @ 10:01am

Re:
Accept photos are 2-dimensional and faces are 3-dimensional.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
4-80-sicks, 6 Nov 2007 @ 10:33am

You don't need a mask, all you need is a fake moustache and beard!

Accept photos are 2-dimensional and faces are 3-dimensional.
I do accept that, it's a fact. What do I do now?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
technofear (profile), 6 Nov 2007 @ 10:23pm

Bad idea...
If a vending machine decided I could not buy my nicotine fix,

That would probably be the last thing it decided....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Melody, 25 Mar 2008 @ 11:24pm

And how many people look years younger than they really are? That would be terribly annoying.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
karry, 1 Dec 2008 @ 4:13am

Re: If a vending machine decided I could not buy my nicotine fix,
However, if they can't get past the sensor, they will just have to do it the old fashioned way: either get a fake ID or count on a minimum-wage teenager working at a convenience store who probably doesn't give a shit laptop battery about who they sell cigarettes to.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2009 @ 11:50am

Re: Bleh
are you insane?
[ link to this | view in thread ]