Smiles banned on Indiana driver's license: Accout facial recognition software

INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Drivers seeking a license in Indiana may be asked to brush their hair but they won't be asked to smile.

The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles has imposed restrictions on anything that might prevent facial recognition software from distinguishing one driver's appearance from another's, The Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal reported Tuesday.

That includes smiling and wearing glasses, hats and scarves, said bureau spokesman Dennis Rosebrough, adding, "A straight-faced photograph enhances the effectiveness of the technology."

Indiana's rules are among the most restrictive of an estimated 20 states that use facial recognition software to detect fraud in driver's licenses, the Courier-Journal reported.

Driver's license applicants in Indiana may be asked to brush their hair to assist with the technology.

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It doesn't bother me because I don't smile, but what does bother me is the facial recognition software.

I don't know which other countries do this, but for Canadian passports we have very strict rules on photo size and what our face is doing. We are not allowed to smile either, and though it is never admitted I always assumed that it was for facial recognition software.


Also, you should quote the article, and link to it for clarification to other users.

[edit on 9-12-2008 by king9072]

reply to post by king9072


Same in New Zealand with the passports-no smiles allowed. And my wife who worked in the issuing agency says that in our case, it's specifically for the facial recognition software they use to put info in the new, chipped passports.

Taken with a neutral expression with the mouth closed
With eyes open and clearly visible, and no hair across the face or eyes

NZ passport photo guidelines


[edit on 9-12-2008 by lostbug]

Originally posted by lostbug
reply to post by king9072

 

Same in New Zealand with the passports-no smiles allowed. And my wife who worked in the issuing agency says that in our case, it's specifically for the facial recognition software they use to put info in the new, chipped passports.

Yah well I think that it may be colony-wide, as in all nations once under (or still implied) Britain.

Another reason for them using this technology is to cut down on identity theft.

Heres the scenario. I have a passport already that says my name is Tim Stevens, but, I have stolen someones wallet and have their birth certificate and other pieces of information. So I go to apply for a passport as John Doe with pictures of myself, so the passport is under his name, but is usable by me with my picture in it.

I apply, everything seems great. But when they scan my picture, a duplicate entry comes up and they know I am already Tim Stevens and can not possibly be John Doe. I wake up to the swat team coming through my front door.

So, in ways its a good thing. But a police state is never a good thing. It's almost like, your damned if you do, and damned if you dont.

reply to post by king9072


Is that new? Just a couple years ago when I got my license renewed she got me to smile. My picture is smiling. In BC anyway.

In ontario we are no longer allowed to smile for our driver license anymore, we are to stand thers stone faces (as they put it :p) and it is now in black an white as well. they are getting very strict, allthough i cant blame them after seeing some of the stupid poses that have been allowed ot go through from some of the people around where i live.

Read my signature for my response to this...

Man I hate one liners, but I guess this one isn't one with the signature!

Does this mean that you can foul up facial recognition just by smiling?

reply to post by Trayen11


I also remember getting a new drivers license picture this past spring and along with the no smiling....... apparently you are not allowed to wear a white shirt, which is what I had on. Fortunately I had a light weight black jacket with me. They made me zip almost all the way to cover as much of the white as possible.

the scariest thing about this, is that the government seems to be enforcing new laws and regulations based specifically on the limits of technology... which will probably change completely in a few years, making all of this irrelevant... or perhaps this is just another test of submission and control, in which we are all failing miserably.

I don't recall any constitutional clause that gives our elected SERVANTS the right to continually make up ever increasing laws and regulations based on science. They didn't get my yes, so its not legal. In fact, as I believe this entire game they're playing to be HIGH TREASON, the highest crime of the land, surpassing murdering a cop, I will not yield because that would make me a party to their crime. As one of the collective BOSSES, I'm not amused. If they make this arbitrary change here in BC, alot of people are going hear about one of their collective BOSSES dissaproval, and threatens of a citizens arrest.

[edit on 9-12-2008 by mystiq]

Originally posted by mystiq
reply to post by king9072

 

Is that new? Just a couple years ago when I got my license renewed she got me to smile. My picture is smiling. In BC anyway.

Please note that I said on Canadian passports. I just had my passport done recently to go to vegas and those were the rules I followed. But they are not new, they are at least a couple years old. The exact age, I am not sure.

As far as DL, I had mine renewed recently as well, and in those, you can still smile and do whatever - it appears, these rules are currently (in Canada anyways), only required for passports.

reply to post by disgustedbyhumanity


Maybe that isn't such a bad thing. Take a look at this cartoon...
gapthemind.com...

sorry for the extreme bump, but i live in Indiana, and my friend got his drivers license with a huge smile and two thumbs up. And they laughed, told him nice job, and gave him his ID.

When I enlisted in the AF in 1983, we got our pictures taken. Everyone knows which ones I'm talking about; the one in your dress uniform that you sent to your family.

Anyway, they actually took two pictures. On the first one, we were told not to smile. This was a black and white picture kept with our records.

I heard years later it was because if we were killed and they find our bones years later, they can compare the skull to the non-smiling picture easier.

At least, that's the military urban legend that I heard.

[edit on 9-1-2009 by jerico65]

never liked my drivers license photo. stupid rules.

I always figured that a frown or a guilty look would be more accurate and representative of my face if I was pulled over and asked for my driver's license. I'm not gonna be smiling a lot.