On computer face recognition:

[Black Unicorn]

On Thu, 11 Apr 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:

> At 7:14 PM 4/11/96, David Loysen wrote:
> 
> >Take a peak at http://www.neci.nj.nec.com/homepages/lawrence/papers. One of
> >Lawences papers is on using Neural networks to recognize faces. Methinks
> >that the state of the art is advancing rapidly and such problems as not
> >looking at the camera or changing your expression are rapidly being overcome.
> 
> One system I read up on a few years ago relied heavily on ear shape....it
> seems that the profile of ears varies tremendously and ear profiles are
> fairly easy to get a kind of hash of, assuming the ear profile is not
> obstructed by hair.

Even ears are not perfect.  Recall the case of the pretender to the 
Romanov/Feodorovich dynasty, "Anna Anderson."  Three independent experts 
used ear profiles to confirm she was indeed the lost Tsarevna Anastasia, a 
judgment later proved wrong by a combination of handwriting analysis, trip ups, 
DNA, and the discovery of the actual Tsarevna's remains.

> "Get a haircut" may once again return to favor.

I can't cite sources, but the current doctrine is silly putty (tm).  Aside 
from looking much like flesh, being easy to apply and mold, it tends to 
absorb and radiate heat fairly well.  The result is a nice distortion of 
IR shots of ears.  While careful analysis will reveal the putty 
eventually, (it will always be somewhat cooler than the flesh) when properly 
applied, silly putty (tm) will so distort the actual ear profile as to 
render identification by this method alone nearly impossible.  

Users with darker skintones are told to add a mixture of blue and red 
food coloring to the putty.  Add salt to taste.

> --Tim May

> Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
> We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
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