To the Computer, You're Still Beautiful

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/weekinreview/12bigp.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position= The New York Times December 12, 2004 To the Computer, You're Still Beautiful By MATTHEW L. WALD UNATTRACTIVE passport photos, once merely traditional, may become mandatory. The reason is that computers do not like smiles. A United Nations agency that sets standards for passports wants all countries to switch to a document that includes a "biometric feature," a digital representation of the bearer's face recorded on an embedded computer chip. In airports and at border crossings, a machine will read the chip to see if the information there matches the bearer's face. But the machine can be flummoxed by smiles, which introduce teeth, wrinkles, seams and other distortions. The State Department issued instructions that passport photos "should be neutral (non-smiling) with both eyes open, and mouth closed." In a grudging sop to the irrepressible, a "smile with closed jaw is allowed, but is not preferred." A State Department spokeswoman pointed to another page of the Web site where "neutral" had been changed to "natural." But it, too, said that the mouth should be closed. Canada and Britain have issued similar instructions. In the end, some critics say, the joke may be on the government, because the face recognition system may deal poorly with aging, and a passport is good for 10 years. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation http://www.ibuc.com/ 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'