Facial Recognition Vending Machine Debuts 172
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."
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
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Also, telling a middle-aged person that they look young is like calling them a 'nO0b' -- not a good thing (or so I am told).
In light of this, these smokes machines might be little more than a clever marketing ploy to appeal to the younger smokers.
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First of all, are you really so PC that you need to put "races" in quotes, as if you doubt the fact that different races even exist?
Second, while it may not be politically correct to say, it's pretty obvious that there are visual differences between races. Mo
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
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Perhaps they should just use a fingerprint analyser ...
At least this isnt Replicant hunting... (Score:2)
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?
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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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Or the right to buy your old father a pack of cigarettes, because he can't go buy them himself?
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http://www.snopes.com/risque/kinky/panties.asp [snopes.com]
http://www.herroflomjapan.com/2006/09/21/the-final-word-on-used-panty-vending-machines-in-japan/ [herroflomjapan.com]
But, there are BEER vending machines, too, not just cigarette machines. I wonder if the ID sensor will be set to deny beer to kids under 20, which I think is the legal age in Japan.
http://www.geocities.jp/m_kato_clinic/mini-age-alcohol-eng-1.html [geocities.jp]
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2037.html [japan-guide.com]
You are not anonymous. (Score:2)
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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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I have many friends of various Asian backgrounds. The ones who REALLY look young but are not under 30 are those who don't smoke, drink, or stress out heavily. I don't know about drugs, but I imagine some drugs will burn out your system, and in combination with the other 3 factors and others can mess up looks.
My housemate seems to take EXTREMELY hot showers. The water must be over 130, way hotter than I'm using. It's scalding to me. I don't know how old he is, but
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Because that wouldn't increase the convenience of the machine at all vs. just requiring an ID card. I guess you are viewing this as a security mechanism, but the people making them apparently think there's a better market as a convenience mechanism. Based on this, I would guess that Japan's attitude about under-age smoking is less strict than her
Overkill (Score:1)
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What the hell? Did they work on farms, and get exposed to too many steroids? I mean, I have heard that some pre-teen farm girls have adult-sized breasts and even midnight shadows. Things are out of hand even more...
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.
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.
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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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How about sailors whose ships are making visits (not mariners, but sailors/soldiers/personnel of military units)?
If they would ID US military personnel, then they can screen them EVERY time the ship enters port. This would make it easy to weed out undercover operatives, known offenders who got off easily under the Status of Forces agreement, and so on. This way, BANNING would have TEETH.
But, als
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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)
Japanese Newspaper headlines: (Score:1)
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
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A valid idiom (at least in the C-likes I know) and one that I use every day when readability benefits.
-:sigma.SB
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In other languages, I think it's a matter of personal preference (and I would expect people to be thoroughly convinced that their own preference is the correct way of doing it).
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.
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Re:Hmmmm PROFIT! (Score:2)
You mean they finally figured out what the "???" is in the Southpark Profit cliche?:
1. Collect Underpants
2. ???
3. Profit
Those clever Japanese.
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Are you saying I'm fat? (Score:1)
Whats next? (Score:4, Funny)
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Fortunately, this will transfer huge amounts of money to thin people. The thin people will commit straw purchases so others may receive more food.
a simple mask (Score:1)
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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Drink lots of green or other herbal teas, cut the smoking, de-tox in some safe way, and smile a lot. Eat lots of kimchee, other anti-oxidants, and have regular bowel movements. Avoid fighting with the wife or wives, and avoid any work requiring your knees today. Take it easy and shake it easy.
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.
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Nowadays, at least in US, any remark toward race is considered racist, even if meant in a good way. I recall how a private remark from Schwarzenegger last year or so made headlines because he had said:
Stereotyping? Y
Because it ain't racist (Score:2)
As westerners our ideas of what happens to make a face look young (I can't speak for other cultures) just happens to be abundant in asian faces. A western female face, perhaps because we are more familiar with it, will develop quickly from that of a young a girl, to that of a mature woman, install a program like poser and see for yourselve how a subtle shifting of the facial lines can make a character leap through the years.
An adult face, even in a female is more lined, more pronounced, asian faces, by the
In Muppet Russia (Score:2)
Here is a marketing idea (Score:5, Funny)
How easy is it to fool? (Score:2)
Over-automation (Score:2)
A big advantage of that approach is that you don't have to invest in a lot up front. You set up a small outsourced shop in Timbuktu and if the concept works, you hire more staff. The software approach requires a lot of big money up front. Physical staff can also study body movement and othe
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"They've-Locked-Onto-My-Tricoder! Brilliant in their methods."
What if the subject produces an androgynous voice. Will the machine say, "SINNER! YOU ARE *not* OF THE BODY! *LANDRU* hELP ME... LANDRU..."?, then start rocking and smoking? (Or, locking and (like the sign I saw in Shibuya in Christmas of 04), "Smorking"?)
First I read this as ... (Score:2)
What response do they get if they are too young??? (Score:2)
I'm sorry Dave, I Cannot do that. Daisy, Dai...
easy to defeat? (Score:2)
IN other news from Japan, (Score:2)
Progeria has an up side (Score:2)
Progeria [wikipedia.org].
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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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Certainly from a health risk point of view, that makes more sense (and no, I don't smoke anything - never could stand the smell, and I prefer to waste my money on chocolate. Better a couple of pounds extra than one lung less :-)
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And of course, what about people who look older than they actually are? I had a friend in high school who liked he was almost thirty before he even turned twenty.
And those who look far younger than they are. I recall an embarrassing gaffe where a friend of a friend offered to drive us to some store. He nipped into the house and emerged with the keys, started the car and away we went. I asked if his mom knew he drove her car. Ooops. He was 18 and it was his car, though he looked for the world like he was 13.
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"They called the Enterprise a garbage scow! Sir."
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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...
Obligatory Kids In The Hall (Score:2)
Mark: They smoke.
Gavin: Yeah!
Mark: Wow.
Gavin: And they're *bad*! And you know what??? They taught a dog to smoke! Do you believe that?
Mark: Sure, I believe that.
Gavin: Yeah, well it's true! And they taught him to beg for cigarettes! Door to door! So right away when this poor little devil would ring your door bell with his paws, you'd know right away what he wanted! So you'd give him a cigarette, and he'd take it back to these guys that waited by the fence to smoke, and they di
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$1.89 hack (Score:5, Insightful)
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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.
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In Japan. They're fairly common.
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Basically, no. Not enough to cause anyone any problems.
I could live with that.
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"Do you mind I do this thing you would never insult me buy saying no to?"
hmmm
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The original article is at yomiuri.co.jp [yomiuri.co.jp].
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