FBI Unveils $1 Billion Facial Recognition System

[NuclearShadow]

While I am sure that the FBI isn't interested in tracking randomly and innocent people with this I still find this to be a violation of our rights. It is technically a type of search without warrant. I don't think even the patriot act opens the doors for this as it clearly states that they have to suspect you to take action to bypass the need of a warrant. Because this will scan every face it encounters and send it to a database the only way this would be legal (and yet funny enough still unconstitutional) is if they suspect literally of everyone of terrorism. From your grandmother to your newborn child.

 

[mikewong]

Person of interest!

 

[tomaz99]

I got this for free...

My Picasa accurately scans all my photo faces and places them in the appropriate category...even the ones when I had a beard. My kids infant pictures are also accurately placed in the proper category of their older pictures.

As with all things that cost money...they should have checked for an existing Google product...

 

[razor512]

A friend of mine is learning to be a makeup artist and if he wanted, he could make make an average lady lock like george washington.

There are also various masks that are very lifelike. In a lab environment the system may be 92% accurate but in the real world, especially when applied to 1600x1200 cameras with a crappy sensor that runs at a very high ISO, that accuracy is likely to drop (common cameras used by the nypd all over the city)

Facial recognition also gets a significant drop in accuracy when the dynamic range is reduced, (eg in low light, or worst, in gray scale when IR lighting is used) most accuracy measurements are done using the best equipment.

I remember one company that was selling a facial recognition program designed for security cameras, but were running it using a DSLR camera

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]JOSHSKORN[/nom]George Orwell's futuristic book was only 30 years before its time.[/citation]
Hoover was fingerprinting millions of schoolkids years before, 1984 wasn't late, it was so early we never even knew it arrived

 

[The_Trutherizer]

We're stuck with it. Tech is growing up faster than our world society and because there just always have to be some mofos that want to swim upstream we are stuck with it. Live and let live be damned.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]jellico[/nom]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.[/citation]
At the same time you would think they could build countermeasures into certain selected locations, such as passport control or border control, The night vision and thermal vision capabilities on the latest CCTV cameras makes disguise nearly impossible. Makeup and prosthetics help to hide bone structure, but thermal filters on the cameras are actually able to see the heat of blood flow through facial arteries, which act as a face fingerprint
...
OK this is expensive kit so it won't be on street corners just yet, but you only have to have them in a areas of high traffic, such as airports or train stations and you could pick out Drew Barrymore disguised as LL Cool J before you could say "Charlies Angels"
...
Anyone with a rubber face on walking through passort control will be kindly asked to remove it, and low and behold it's another Allahakbar trying to blow up some more skyscrapers, bingo, 1-0 to the good guys, shame the system only cost $1billion and all your civil liberties

 

[freggo]

BTW, mass scanning is nothing new!
Many police departments have license plate scanners on their patrol cars.
They simply cruse parking lots and the car automatically scans all plates to check for outstanding tickets, warrants or stolen cars. Isn't that the same thing as scanning all faces without proof they have done anything wrong ?

Nobody seems to mind the license plate scanners.

 

[thecolorblue]

[citation][nom]NuclearShadow[/nom]While I am sure that the FBI isn't interested in tracking randomly and innocent people with this I still find this to be a violation of our rights.[/citation]

that is exactly what this is designed for, no other purpose.

 

[unksol]

I am sorry. You all are idiots. your tinfoil hats will protect you I promise. no one cares about your life or would bother to track you. Its to ID wanted criminals. And may be deployed in high traffic areas. That's it. Not log you. Too much Data. Its just looking for a match against a small database.

And seriously? Silly putty? Won't work. Security would see you. People would. Any any mask would be flagged as non human. How is murders, rapists, kidnappers, and terrorist getting caught bad?

Don't be a paranoid nut building bombs in your basement and no one will care

 

[f-14]

guess anonymous won't be the only ones using those masks.

that or nixon, kennedy, carter, and reagan are going to be all over the place, not just local bank robberys.

or perhaps every one will start wearing veils like muslim women do and turbans that can wind around your face when you are out in public like islamic jihadis.

or plastic surgery is going to become alot more popular and expensive.

whatever happened with the facebook facial recognition-tagging licensing the government did?

 

[acadia11]

[citation][nom]dextermat[/nom]FBI should write a book: How to waste 1 billion of tax payers money.... even if technology is cool![/citation]

$1 billion of tax payer dollars = 1 / 3800 * 100 ~ .026% of the US budget, in other words less than a fraction of a tenth of a percent of the US Budget. I always find it interesting that people have no clue about the relative size of our budget and a $1 billion or even $100 billion dollars in comparison.

 

[freggo]

[citation][nom]freggo[/nom]BTW, mass scanning is nothing new!Many police departments have license plate scanners on their patrol cars.They simply cruse parking lots and the car automatically scans all plates to check for outstanding tickets, warrants or stolen cars. Isn't that the same thing as scanning all faces without proof they have done anything wrong ?Nobody seems to mind the license plate scanners.[/citation]


How could I possibly get a 'thumbs down' for this?
Did someone think it is a joke?
It is not. This is in use, for example, in the Miami area.