YESTERDAY WE REPORTED that cigarette vending machines in Japan could soon be equipped with biometric equipment that would be able to tell whether or not the customer was under age. It seems, however, that Japan is not the only place where facial recognition technology could be used to deny young ones the sinful pleasures of a nicotine rush or alcoholic stupour. Britain is at it too.

The BBC reports that a British supermarket chain, Budgens, is currently piloting facial recognition software in one of its stores, which can apparently recognise kids who have previously tried (and failed) to purchase booze and ciggies illegally, and can then warn the cashier not to serve them.

The move is being heralded as the first time a British retailer has used biometric or facial recognition technology to screen for under age customers, but in a society where CCTV cameras are more prevalent on local streets than on reality TV, it was only really a matter of time.

The way the technology works is by scanning a person's face with a camera after which a computer analyses the image and performs various measurements between certain facial points. Because these measurements are thought to be somewhat unique from person to person, the computer can then check the measurements with others already stored on the database for a match.

The system, using cameras above the shop’s tills, can purportedly recognise a yoof who has been carded on a previous occasion and whose fake ID was obviously too shoddy to give proof of them actually being 18. The kid-thwarting database goes mad with excitement, a signal is immediately sent to the cashier, and the hooly slouches off to loiter outside the store where s/he can get someone else to go in and buy booze for them.

Managing director of the firm Charton, which sells the technology, reckons that the database already stores approx 1,500 images of sullen teens, and that the capacity could stretch to 2 million.

Of course, civil liberties groups are already kicking up a fuss about privacy concerns, and what would happen if the government accidentally (or routinely) let the facial database fall into the wrong hands, but their shrill, indignant voices will doubtless fall on deaf ears.

Here’s a bit of free Inq advice though, for any teen worried about facial privacy: Just keep wearing that ridiculous hoodie, peaked cap and sunglasses indoors, and you’ll be just fine. µ

L'Inq
BBC

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