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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday July 28 2020, @09:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the positive-side-effect dept.

U.S. agency: Pandemic masks thwarting face recognition tech:

Having a tough time recognizing your neighbors behind their pandemic masks? Computers are finding it more difficult, too.

A preliminary study published by a U.S. agency on Monday found that even the best commercial facial recognition systems have error rates as high as 50% when trying to identify masked faces.

The mask problem is why Apple earlier this year made it easier for iPhone owners to unlock their phones without Face ID. It could also be thwarting attempts by authorities to identify individual people at Black Lives Matter protests and other gatherings.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology says it is launching an investigation to better understand how facial recognition performs on covered faces. Its preliminary study examined only those algorithms created before the pandemic, but its next step is to look at how accuracy could improve as commercial providers adapt their technology to an era when so many people are wearing masks.

Some companies, including those that work with law enforcement, have tried to tailor their face-scanning algorithms to focus on people's eyes and eyebrows.

NIST, which is a part of the Commerce Department, is working with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security's science office to study the problem.

Aww, I feel so bad for the little guy! Perhaps we can help out by training up a neural net to correlate masked and unmasked photos.


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 30 2020, @04:07PM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 30 2020, @04:07PM (#1028733) Journal

    How much do you want here?

    Yes, cops should be fearful of accosting people at random. There have been so many bullshit examples of shit policing in this country. New York's 'Stop and Frisk' leads as a fascist as well as racist policy. The cops should have been fearful of throwing every second or third black person up against the wall, to search them. Actually, the cops should have rebelled against the policy, and told the politicians to go fuck themselves. "If you want to stop and frisk, get your fat political ass out here, and do the stopping and frisking!"

    Worse, much of what the cops were searching for, should not be illegal. A gun? A knife? Numchucks? Some grass? Loose cigarettes being sold individually? A roach clip? Unless and until most of things are OBSERVED being used to do something illegal, they should be legal. Harder drugs - well - that's a little different, but a police force doesn't have any right or authority to just search people randomly because someone in the crowd MIGHT HAVE illegal hard drugs.

    I want to repeal all the guns laws. I want to repeal that supposedly "limited" immunity that cops enjoy. And, I want to see cops be held accountable for their actions. No more hiding behind some magic cloak of "I'm just obeying orders, and I can't be prosecuted for anything I do."

    Yes, the cops should be afraid of going into someone's home, tossing grenades around, shooting anything that moves, and dragging anyone they don't like to jail. Where's the fucking insurrection?

    Chicago is just as bad as New York. Odd, Los Angeles doesn't make it into the news for such gross violations of human rights. What's with that?

    Why don't my local police do this same shit around here? Because they know damned well that they'll be met at the door by an armed citizen, who is more than willing to defend himself, and his family, as well as his property.

    I have, quite literally, told police to get the fuck off my property. And, they obeyed. The cops involved made threatening noises, to salve their egos, but they got the fuck off my property. Why? Because the crazy old bastard has weapons, as well as enough sons and stepsons to make an army squad.

    New York and Chicago? FFS, everything is wrong there. Police have no fear, and they walk on anyone they want to walk on.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @06:58PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @06:58PM (#1028843)

    A big problem is that police in cities mostly live in the suburbs, residency requirements be damned. Not many people will beat up their neighbor without good cause...

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 30 2020, @07:16PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 30 2020, @07:16PM (#1028851) Journal

      Yes. That is part of the "systemic" that the liberals are talking about. Each and every part of the system that can be fixed, needs to be fixed. Establish residency requirements where they don't exist, and enforce them where they do exist. A person who deems himself too good to live in my neighborhood, is also too good to work in it. And, he's damned well too good to be telling me and my neighbors how to live!