Monday, April 20, 2009

Winona Rider or Osama Bin Laden - face scanners can't tell

I missed this a couple of weeks ago. The trial of the face scanning technology at Manchester Airport caused long queues, so they re-calibrated it to let more people through without the extra security checks triggered by a scanner alert. Similar scanners at Sydney Airport set to the same calibration level were tested by an academic from Glasgow University and were unable to tell the difference between Osama Bin Laden and actress Winona Rider. The Home Office is, however, insisting that "Previous tests show that they system can reliably pick out imposters and even distinguish between identical twins."

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