USA Makes Strange Decisions? Check This Out.

[Winston]

It's called facial recognition. There's nothing wrong with that, you know.

[Tingkai]

Just got my Hong Kong citizenship card and there was no requirement not to smile.

Interesting card. Has a chip in it that stores electronic thumbprint images.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Ok, I get your point.
Now we don't have to work about terrorists with UK passports.
I know I'll sleep easier.

Given the size of Britain's Muslim population, the citizenship of their recent bombers, and the fact that Brits don't need visas to travel to the US, you should sleep easier knowing the Brits are at least trying.

And FYI: the US uses facial recognition software, too. It has already changed our visa photo requirements once (from 3/4 profile to full-face), and I wouldn't be surprised if we have a "no smile" rule in the very near future.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by techumseh
If you smile, face recognition software may not work.

Which puts a smile on my face almost immediately.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
In neither Illinois nor Florida are we allowed to smile for our drivers' licenses.

In Colorado they make sure you aren't smiling by hiring hostile and incompetent people for the DMV.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
That facial recognition software will work more efficiently.

Just a quibble - if people smile and such when the facial recognition software is looking at camera footage, won't it also have trouble identifying them?

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly


Given the size of Britain's Muslim population, the citizenship of their recent bombers, and the fact that Brits don't need visas to travel to the US, you should sleep easier knowing the Brits are at least trying.

And FYI: the US uses facial recognition software, too. It has already changed our visa photo requirements once (from 3/4 profile to full-face), and I wouldn't be surprised if we have a "no smile" rule in the very near future.

Probably. We're co-ordinating with you guys quite a lot on this stuff so that our passports work with your scanners and vice versa.

Will come to the US sooner rather than later I expect.

[Pekka]

I think the whole point is that the passport should be real then. It doesn't stop terrorists from coming in or moving around, but at least it makes it more difficult for terrorist and/or criminals to move around with FAKE passports.

The advantages of that are of course numerous. First of all, we can track people down, and if we know the person, except that his passport is fake, we have basically nothing but a picture IF lucky. And fake name and fake everything. So we got nothing basically to go with, except that picture.

With REAL passport, we have bigger chances of those informations to be correct, even though of course they can be faked. Like it's possible to buy a real passport, with fake info. THose are SOBs to track down. With real SSNs etc.

But the whole idea of passport is, I believe, that you can't re-empt anyone really, except if the person is like celebrity status criminal, but more like you can use it afterwards. Also, of course, if you get a hint before the person is comign in, you can be ready to take them and not let them go through. Other than that, there's really no use to any identification when crossing borders.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by techumseh
If you smile, face recognition software may not work.

Then the face-recognition software needs to be improved .

[MarkG]

"When the mouth is open it can make it difficult for facial recognition technology to work effectively."

lesson of the day: FIGHT THE SYSTEM, SMILE!

[SlowwHand]

I find it hilarious the number of people here that speak out of bothe sides of their mouth.

The government needs to butt out, but they need to be responsible for all things.
Socialist Libertarians?

Idiots.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Just a quibble - if people smile and such when the facial recognition software is looking at camera footage, won't it also have trouble identifying them?

Yes, but I'm guessing that having a "neutral" image will make it easier to compare to the whole range of expressions than would having an image of a smiling face.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
I find it hilarious the number of people here that speak out of bothe sides of their mouth.

The government needs to butt out, but they need to be responsible for all things.
Socialist Libertarians?

Idiots.

I only see one idiot here.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Tingkai
Just got my Hong Kong citizenship card and there was no requirement not to smile.

Interesting card. Has a chip in it that stores electronic thumbprint images.

We don't use no stinkin' facial recognition - we use thumb prints instead.

What a bunch of boobs, thinking biometrics is some sort of ultimate security measure.

[Straybow]

For most drivers licenses they don't have to worry about it. Nobody is smiling by the time they wait half the day in those lines.