Tim Griffiths[SMTP:griffith@wis.weizmann.ac.il] forwarded (yet another) report on the Mandrake facial recognition system, this time from http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/searches/mainsrch.htm#ap

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CCTV's developer, Software and Systems International, says the system is accurate enough to discern people hiding behind make-up or eye glasses. And growing a beard won't help either, the company says.

[...snip...] According to SSI at http://www.ssi-ltd.co.uk/latenews.htm#Law the program uses the position of facial features to recognise you.

Even if offenders try to disguise their appearance, say S&SI, the system will still identify them, as it is based on recognising facial structure, such as the spacing between the eyes, nose and mouth. It takes into account, and disregards, variations of head orientation, lighting conditions, skin colour, make-up, facial expression, facial hair, spectacles and ageing.

So presumably can be confused by obscuring the exact postion of features - such as a dense moustache that covers the mouth, or the presence or absence of a hairstyle that seems to change the shape of the head. I shave my head - if I grew back some "big hair", or wore a wig, would the sytem be able to tell where the top of my skull was? Maybe a full beard would change the apparent width of the whole head. Maybe dark glasses would obscure the exact position of the eyes. As we all know criminals are too stupid to use strong cryptography without an export license, there is no way any of them would think of novel high-tech solutions such as wearing a hat or a scarf. Just to add some irony, the main line used to sell this to the British public is control of football (soccer) "hooligans". Like child pornography or the "war on drugs", football fans are easy target for repressive measures. No respectable citizen wants to be associated with the "trouble makers". And of course, football fans are notorious for not wearing scarves or hats, aren't they :-) Ken Brown (& not his bosses)