Facial Recognition Software Denies Man Passport For “Shut Eyes”

Time to make artificial intelligence non-racist? (Photo Courtesy: Facebook Mashd n Kutcher)

A New Zealand man of Asian descent had his passport photograph rejected when facial recognition software mistakenly registered his eyes as being closed.

Richard Lee's attempt to renew his passport was blocked after he submitted the picture to an online passport photo checker run by New Zealand's department of internal affairs.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook Mashd n Kutcher)

The automated system told the 22-year-old engineering student that the photo was invalid because his eyes were closed, even though they were clearly open, according to a copy of the notification posted on social media site Facebook.

No hard feelings on my part, I’ve always had very small eyes and facial recognition technology is relatively new and unsophisticated. I got my passport renewed in the end.

Richard Lee

Up to 20 percent of passport photos submitted online are rejected for various reasons, an Internal Affairs spokesman said.

"The most common error is a subject's eyes being closed and that was the generic error message sent in this case," he said.

The lighting in Lee's first photo was uneven, but a later one was accepted, he added.

(With inputs from Reuters)