FBI Unveils $1 Billion Facial Recognition System

[Guest]

Fingerprinting is so yesterday.

FBI Unveils $1 Billion Facial Recognition System : Read more

 

[dextermat]

FBI should write a book: How to waste 1 billion of tax payers money.... even if technology is cool!

 

[xurwin]

why not pour it all on the R&D department and make some cool batman or james bond kind of items. that would be pretty sweet and helpful of course. they could make a Batman to save almost everybody. 1billion is alot of cash though

 

[TeraMedia]

Great. Now we'll have to watch a sequel with Shia LeBoeuf running all over the countryside, unwittingly helping execute a plot to kill people. Except this time, it won't be the Air Force's system but rather the FBI's.

Now if they connect this technology up to peoples' camera phones, that could be truly scary. Who needs a tinfoil hat when you can wear a prosthetic nose.

 

[icepick314]

and it's defeated by $5 novelty plastic mustache glasses...

 

[outlw6669]

92% accurate, 8% rate of false identification.
Yeup, no chance that this will cause any issues....

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]outlw6669[/nom]92% accurate, 8% rate of false identification.Yeup, no chance that this will cause any issues....[/citation]
That is still 92% more effective than an un-fingerprinted terrorist that we have a photo of

 

[outlw6669]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]That is still 92% more effective than an un-fingerprinted terrorist that we have a photo of[/citation]
Until they shave/grow a beard or put on glasses, makeup, etc.....

 

[jellico]

Hmmm.... so, I'm thinking Scamble Suits ala Philip K. Dick's novel, A Scanner Darkly.

 

[back_by_demand]

So if this is rolled out in airports, does that mean the FBI will have a database of anyone using air travel? Exactly how many people do you think will be placed into a crime database without permission or knowledge in just 12 months? A bit of searching says about 48% of Americans travel by air each year, so about 150 million
...
Yeah, that database is going to get real busy, especially when you add all the foreign travellers coming in every year for holidays / business / blowing up skyscrapers etc
...
Funny they announced it on 9/11, just to remind us they are doing something useful

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]outlw6669[/nom]Until they shave/grow a beard or put on glasses, makeup, etc.....[/citation]
I'm sure if all it took to fool a billion dollar facial recognition software was a liberal application of lipstick or growing a moustache they wouldn't have even announced it
...
Tell you what, grow a moustache then rob a post office, then shave it off and see if you can fool the system, I dare ya

 

[hardcore_gamer]

[citation][nom]outlw6669[/nom]Until they shave/grow a beard or put on glasses, makeup, etc.....[/citation]

They won't shave the beard

 

[beardguy]

F'ing waste of taxpayer money. So long to another piece of freedom.

News flash: This system will be abused.

 

[mihaimm]

Oh... it's just 30 years later than predicted...

 

[bildo123]

-1984 points

Also, where exactly is the Fed gonna get the money to fund this? The BRIC nations are starting to see our t-bills as a bit risky (and worthless) now-a-days. Oh, I got it, QE3! Hurray "stimulus"! Thanks Ben and Keynes!

 

[slabbo]

just like in minority report with those retina scanners, tracking you everywhere you go.

 

[festerovic]

time to dust off the guy fawkes mask...

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]I'm sure if all it took to fool a billion dollar facial recognition software was a liberal application of lipstick or growing a moustache they wouldn't have even announced it...Tell you what, grow a moustache then rob a post office, then shave it off and see if you can fool the system, I dare ya[/citation]

give me 100$ and i could make some realistic facial appliances that would fool real people, much less a computer.

 

[freggo]

8% false positive does not sound like a lot but take a 747 with 300 passengers.
That's still 24 passengers; enough to cause 'problems' :-(

And the Database is likely to contain mostly US citizens of course.
I don't see middle eastern governments turn over photos; and in the case of their women you'd get only a set of eyes anyway !

 

[madjimms]

Step one, Put silly putty on nose.
Step two, Put silly putty on chin to look like Jay Leno
Step three, Allah Akbar?

 

[JOSHSKORN]

George Orwell's futuristic book was only 30 years before its time.

 

[leo2kp]

So that's 128,000 false accusations?

 

[Guest]

This is not to fight crime. It is an inventory management system. You are the inventory.

 

[jellico]

[citation][nom]alidan[/nom]give me 100$ and i could make some realistic facial appliances that would fool real people, much less a computer.[/citation]
I believe/agree with you. These systems work by taking measurements of things like the distance between your eyes, between your ears, distance from your eye corners to the bottom of your nose, etc. It then creates tables of ratios to form a sort of biometric hash of your face (obviously with fuzzy logic to account for things like wearing glasses, growing/removing facial hair, etc.). To defeat such a system, you simply need a facial appliance, as alidan suggested, that would alter these features thereby creating a false "hash" for the wearer. With practice, you could become skilled enough at applying them that they would look as good as anything produced by Hollywood. Granted, a human being might think you look a little odd (at a subconscious level, we expect faces to look a certain way and we are keenly aware of even minute deviations), but it would more than enough to defeat even billion dollar facial recognition systems.

 

[freggo]

What about cosmetic surgery?
Just look what it did to some of the Hollywood elite; good or bad