Logan face-recognition fails test

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

X-Received: By mailgate.Cadence.COM as MAA08042 at Tue Sep  2 12:50:42 2003
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2003 12:50:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Gregory Hicks <ghicks () cadence com>
Subject: Logan face-recognition fails test
To: dave () farber net


For IP if OK...  From the Cryptography list.

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<http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=&urlID=7387802&fb=Y&partnerID=1664>

USA Today


Airport anti-terror systems flub tests

By Richard Willing, USA TODAY

Camera technology designed to spot potential terrorists by their facial
characteristics at airports failed its first major test, a report from
the airport that tested the technology shows.

Last year, two separate face-recognition systems at Boston's Logan
Airport failed 96 times to detect volunteers who played potential
terrorists as they passed security checkpoints during a three-month
test period, the airport's analysis says. The systems correctly
detected them 153 times.

The airport's report calls the rate of inaccuracy "excessive." The
report was completed in July 2002 but not made public. The American
Civil Liberties Union obtained a copy last month through a Freedom of
Information Act request.

Logan is where 10 of the 19 terrorists boarded the flights that were
later hijacked Sept. 11, 2001.

The airport is now testing other security technology, including
infrared cameras and eyeball scans, spokesman Jose Juves says.

Face recognition works by matching faces picked up by surveillance
cameras with pictures stored in computer databases. Relationships
between a face's identifying features, such as cheekbones and eye
sockets, are converted to a mathematical formula and used to make a
match.

In the Logan Airport experiment, photographs of 40 airport employees
were put into a database. The employees then attempted to pass through
two security checkpoints where face-recognition cameras were used.

The ACLU opposes facial recognition because it says the government can
use the technology to invade citizens' privacy.

"But before you even get to the privacy concern, there's a fundamental
question about our security," says Barry Steinhardt, who specializes in
privacy issues at the ACLU's national office in New York. "The thing
just plain doesn't work."

A spokesman for one of the companies whose system was tried at Logan
Airport says the test was not a fair measure of the technology. Meir
Kahtan of Identix of Minnetonka, Minn., says the technology is far
better suited for "one-to-one" identification, such as comparing photos
on passports or driver's licenses, than random searches of photo
databases.

A government test in 2002 found that face-recognition systems scored
correct matches more than 90% of the time when used for such one-to-one
identifications.

A spokesman for Visage Technology of Littleton, Mass., the other
company that failed the Logan test, declined to comment.

The Logan Airport report is the latest piece of bad news for a
technology that was once touted as the state-of-the-art method for
picking faces out of crowds. Last month, Tampa police announced that
they were shutting down face-recognition cameras because they had
failed to make any matches during a two-year test period. The cameras,
which were mounted in a popular tourist area, were designed to match
pictures captured at random against stored photos of wanted suspects
and runaway children. Virginia Beach, police, who have operated a
similar system for the past year, reported no matches as of July.

The Logan experiment was the largest test of facial-recognition
technology made public. The technology has also been tested using
smaller groups of volunteers at airports in Dallas/Fort Worth, Fresno,
Calif., and Palm Beach County, Fla., with similar results.

The Transportation Security Administration, which is responsible for
passenger screening, has tested other airport security technology but
has not made results public. Phone calls requesting comment on the
Logan Airport test were not immediately returned.

Kelly Shannon, spokeswoman for the State Department's consular affairs
office, said the Logan Airport results would not affect plans to use
face recognition to enhance passport security. Beginning in October
2004, the United Kingdom, Japan and 25 other countries whose nationals
are permitted to travel to the USA without visas are required to
convert to passport photos that are compatible with face-recognition
systems.

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-------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregory Hicks                        | Principal Systems Engineer
Cadence Design Systems               | Direct:   408.576.3609
555 River Oaks Pkwy M/S 6B1          | Fax:      408.894.3400
San Jose, CA 95134                   | Internet: ghicks () cadence com

"The trouble with doing anything right the first time is that nobody
appreciates how difficult it was."

When a team of dedicated individuals makes a commitment to act as
one...  the sky's the limit.

Just because "We've always done it that way" is not necessarily a good
reason to continue to do so...  Grace Hopper, Rear Admiral, United
States Navy

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