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Facial Recognition Vending Machine Debuts
Posted by
samzenpus
on Tue Nov 13, 2007 07:23 PM
from the no-more-candy-for-you-chubby dept.
from the no-more-candy-for-you-chubby dept.
Peter Hanami writes "Yesterday in Japan, a facial recognition vending machine went on sale that can tell the age of the buyer based on a range of features including number of wrinkles, bone structure and how the skin sits on the face. It was developed as a way to stop minors from buying cigarettes from vending machines. In Japan, cigarette vending machines are a common feature on the street and presently few safeguards exist to stop younger users from purchasing them. This new machine is seen as a positive step to reduce under age smoking. If the machine doesnt deem the buyer to be of suitable age, 20 years old, the buyer must provide further identification such as a drivers licence."
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Submission: Facial recognition vending machine debut in Japan by Anonymous Coward
[+]
IT: Magazine Photos Fool Age-verification Cameras 309 comments
gregor-e writes "Japan has scheduled a full-scale rollout of visual age-verification on cigarette vending machines. Unfortunately for them, a Sankei Sports news reporter has determined that this system can be fooled by holding up a magazine photo of an adult."
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What about other nationalities (Score:5, Interesting)
Well at least it is a fairly novel idea.
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Ah, so you read the summary. Very bold of you, sir.
FTFS: "the buyer must provide further identification such as a drivers licence."
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Seriously, the difference between "races" is hardly so vast that the algorithms will have to be rewritten from scratch. In fact, they probably won't have to be rewritten at all. Are there really any facial feature that are unique to geographic regions?
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Seriously, the difference between "races" is hardly so vast that the algorithms will have to be rewritten from scratch. In fact, they probably won't have to be rewritten at all. Are there really any facial feature that are unique to geographic regions?
Are you kidding? My Vietnamese girlfriend always jokingly asks me why all Westerners look so old, and I ask her why all Asians are so small (or why they look so young). If the algorithm isn't a learning one, it absolutely will not succeed at this task. I witnessed the introduction of an Israeli girl and a Japanese woman. The Israeli asked in English, "How old are you?", and the Japanese woman said, "Thirty." My Israeli friend said, "No, you couldn't possibly be thirteen..." She misheard, because this woman
Why not compare ID with face? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I guess you haven't figured out how to think like the Japanese yet.
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Then again, I'm not versed in the law in Japan. Perhaps they have laws preventing the use of the ID in this manner (unlike how the US SSN was only (broken) promised to be used for limited government purposes), and others preventing industry from providing its own IDs for use with their devices (i.e. a card for use in certain brands of cigarette vending machines, a card for use in certain brands of alcohol vending machines, a card for use in certain brands of pornography vending
Re:Why not compare ID with face? (Score:5, Insightful)
Or you believe in the right to be anonymous and not have a government issued ID card?
Parent
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(Which could, for example, be used to deny health insurance later.)
Oh, yeah, I forgot about the right to defraud insurance companies by getting the rates of a non-smoker when you smoke.
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How often am I supposed to go in for a new picture / have new facial recognition meta info encoded onto this card? My drivers license is good for 5 years, and I'm now 44 years old. At 49 will I look enough the same?
This technology has potential for AI programming for robots and such, but should only be used as a "one of many" inp
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At least this isnt Replicant hunting... (Score:2)
Why not just use the DL at first? (Score:2)
Wouldn't the comparatively simple low tech solution be better? Wouldn't even older smokers rather have a reliable system that one that's probably going to deny them cigarettes when it misreads their faces?
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Kamikaze the machine!
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A lot of people in Japan don't have driver's licences.
Anyway, the whole idea is to make the transaction quick and not require the purchaser to find a card. It's an initiative by the cigarette machine makers to make their machines more acceptable, not by the government to reduce cigarette smoking by youngsters.
Licenses? (Score:2)
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Because a lot of people don't have driver's licenses here, and thus there is no standard ID card to read, nor is there any requirement that you actually own one. A fair amount of people will actually use their bankbook or similar document, and for signatures you'd use a hanko.
They're pretty neat but... (Score:5, Funny)
Old news (Score:2)
Sounds like it could be easily fooled (Score:3, Interesting)
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Need these in pubs and clubs! (Score:5, Funny)
examineButton_onclick() (Score:2)
displayApprovalDialog(girl.name);
else
whyDontYouHaveASeatOverThere(user.name);
//I'm pretty sure I violated Obscure Coding Rule #655360 but whatever
Hmmmm (Score:5, Interesting)
Some of the beer machines would power off at a certain time to try to discourage street drunks.
When asked what kept under age drinkers from using the beer vending machines, the locals would reply "well, they just don't..."
Certain enterprising business men would pay the local high school girls for used underwear. Then they would shrinkwrap them, along with a signed Polaroid and put them into those arcade 'claw' machines. Had a thriving business until the neighborhood moms began wondering why their daughters were always asking for new Hello Kitty undies. The moms went to the cops. The cops were stumped, at first, as they had a hard time finding a specific law on the books that the pre-owned-panty vendors were breaking.
Finally, the cops decided to apply an antiques law that says you have to be licensed accordingly for the sale of certain 'used' or aged goods. No permit to sell antiques? Come with us...you're under arrest - and don't forget the evidence
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Perhaps "+1 Better Topic" would be more appropriate? "Off-Topic" has a somewhat negative connotation. Also, it would go well with the proposed "-1 Too Informative" mod.
Whats next? (Score:4, Funny)
Smoking ages you (Score:2)
When I was a kid & smoked, all my friends & I looked older than we actually were because we'd started smoking when we were about 13.
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A plus, though. I can attract most any hot MILF within seconds (always fun to screw with the other guys.) Minus? I'm gay, so it doesn't really affect me (even more fun, they know I'm gay and they still can't get the girl from me.)
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Quite a trick for women. (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Quite a trick for women. (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole "you're being racist" thing itself is racism, making an assumption that the other person might be racist just because the other person isn't of your race, is racist. If the parent post was asian, but adopted by a white family without contact with other asians, and said, "I cannot tell two asians apart", would it still be racist?
Facial pattern recognition is a learned ability, and each race has a unique set of facial patterns. You cannot expect someone that has had minimal contact with people outside their own race to be able to detect these differences.
I think the only reason that people get offended because they hear someone say, "<race> all look alike" is because people dislike being grouped by their race, even if there is no ill-will meant. If you're going to be upset by this, you shouldn't stop there. Tell doctors to stop testing black people for Sickle Cell Anemia, because it is racist for them to think that the decease could possibly be more prevalent in those with a particular heritage or skin color -- after all, "race is only skin deep", right? Oh, thats right, those people would rather be healthy than complain that they're being singled out for screenings based on their race.
The truth is that different races have different physical attributes which can cause certain challenges for those not intimately familiar with those differences; be it facial recognition to recognize someone's age or sex, or be it differences that affect a medical practitioner's ability to save a life.
Parent
In Muppet Russia (Score:2)
Here is a marketing idea (Score:5, Funny)
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>"There's not really much you can do about it other than require an ID for everyone regardless of age"
You can always just ban cigarette vending machines ... other places have done it.
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I had a friend in high school who liked he was almost thirty before he even turned twenty.
Maybe he looked thirty because he was smoking too much.
And maybe that made it easier for him to get cigarettes from the machine... which let him smoke more...
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"They called the Enterprise a garbage scow! Sir."
$1.89 hack (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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http://www.associatedcontent.com/image/19497/japans_new_royal_son.html [associatedcontent.com]
Hmmm... I'm not so sure about this plan of yours. It's probably easier to get a passer-by to stand in front of the machine for a moment, instead.
Re:Build a better mouse trap... (Score:5, Insightful)
I've had enough smokers stand upwind, throw cigarette butts everywhere, walk around stinking like a smokestack, etc., that I just don't care if smokers are inconvenienced once in a while too.
Parent
Honne and Tatemae (Score:5, Interesting)
It is not about actually preventing minors from purchasing cigarettes, it about making the appearance of doing so. By making the appearance of oing so, these vending machines will continue to be allowed, and it may even stop them from being "turned off" at 11:00 PM as they are now. It may also allow Beer vending machines to make a comeback (they are still here, but in far fewer quantities than they used to be.)
Japan is about image, and showing that you are respecting the group consensus. Japan is not about actually making something foolproof.
Parent
Re:Honne and Tatemae (Score:4, Interesting)
See also the new foreigner fingerprinting measures [google.com] going into effect this month. The fingerprinting and storage of those fingerprints has nothing to do with preventing terrorist attacks. It's about presenting an image to reactionary domestic groups and to the United States. The fact that it's going to have a negative impact on their tourist industry hasn't hit them for some reason. Japan has security theater down to an art form.
Parent
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The Honne: Terror bad! We make you safe. Safe equals happy, we love you!
Tatemae: Must fingerprint foreign Devils.
Here is a video the Japanese government have put together about this which is worth the watch simply because it is so stupid it is funny.
http://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/common/moviechk.php?p=1203&d=0&t=110&b=0&m=1&r=2 [gov-online.go.jp]
The real purpose o
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