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Digital Dogtags 2: Yes, bartender, I’m 21

You can count on the Japanese to top the British GPS-based radio show that I wrote about in the first installment of “Digital Dogtags” (click here to see it).

The Tokyo-based Fujitaka Company is seeking approval for a new system which will determine a person’s age from a digital photograph.  The system approximates your age (at the moment, it’s 90% accurate; they’re working on getting it up to 100%) by comparing your face to a database of 100,000 other faces.  At this point, their plan is to use the system as an age validation tool for cigarette vending machines.  But is it unrealistic to believe that their database will eventually grow to include everybody’s face?  Here’s how I see events progressing over time:

  1. Cameras on cigarette vending machines use face recognition software to determine your age.
  2. Face recognition software gets cheaper over time, and it is eventually implemented at bars, casinos, nightclubs, and other venues that have age requirements.
  3. A feature is added to the software that allows it to match a specific person’s face to a face in their database.
  4. The software is used as an identity verification tool by testing centers, authorized-personnel-only areas, and other exclusive locations.
  5. The software gets even cheaper and it becomes widespread as a keyless-entry tool (similar to fingerprint readers, but more convenient).
  6. People start to buy the face-recognition keyless-entry system for their houses, their cars, their offices, their safe deposit boxes, and any other place that needs a key.
  7. Face recognition is now everywhere.  Soon, governments start to assemble databases containing the faces of every legal resident of their country.
  8. The face recognition cameras on everybody’s houses/cars are linked to the government database, making it impossible for a criminal to go anywhere unnoticed.
  9. The system is used to identify you wherever you go (just like they do in the book/movie Minority Report).

Like I said in the first installment of “Digital Dogtags”, I actually like the idea… I have nothing to hide and I’d love to use this system to catch criminals.  What do you think of it?  Is it a valuable tool or an infringement of privacy (or both)?

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