To the Computer, You're Still Beautiful

[R.A. Hettinga]

<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.

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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
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'