- Sunday, 29 November 2009
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General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias - Elbert Hubbard
Biometric machines thwart kid smokers
JAPANESE SCHOOL KIDS could soon be wishing they could swap their baby faces for a few wrinkles or liver spots, because a company has just come up with a new biometric vending machine to prevent minors from buying cigarettes.
To enjoy a fag in Japan, you have to, in theory, be at least 20 years old, but in practice it has never been especially difficult for nicotine-mad school kids to get hold of smokes from any number of the 570,000 vending machines that dole them out in much the same way as one would buy fizzy drinks and sweets.
But now a firm called Fujitaka has come up with a biometric system to thwart kids in their attempts to buy cigarettes illegally. Those in dire need of a smoke will now have to look into a digital camera on the vending machine, which will then compare their facial features to the data of approx 100,000 other people who’s ages have been logged. Everything from sagging skin to wrinkles will be taken into account by the age-discerning machine which will then decide whether or not to serve the customer.
Last month we reported that Japan’s 'Tobacco Institute' had decided that, by July 2008, all Japanese smokers would have to carry a Taspo (tobacco passport), to prove their age. The cards would work in much the same way as a debit card, being able to offer proof of age and pay for the cigarettes at the same time.
But, says Hajime Yamamoto, spokesman for Fujitaka, with new biometric machines "the problem of minors borrowing (identification) cards to purchase cigarettes could be avoided". He also reckoned that the machine got the age right about 90 per cent of the time, which is relatively high. If the machine was unsure, the customer would be asked to insert a driving license for additional proof.
According to the Japanese health ministry, about 13 per cent of boys and four per cent of girls aged 17 to 18 smoke on a daily basis.
But not everyone is convinced of the biometric fag machine’s accuracy, and the Japanese finance ministry has not yet given the project the go-ahead. Maybe by the time it’s finally approved, those most worried about it will have finally reached the legal age.
Either that or they’ll have figured out that they’ll just have to bum ciggies off their older siblings like everywhere else in the world. µ
L'Inq
Reuters
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Can it tell the difference between a picture and a live person? That's the first thing that pops into my head. Just hold a picture of your 70yr old grandpa in front of it. If it can't tell the difference then it'll easily be fooled.
First, to respond to Aurien, no, using a picture will not work, at least, as long as they work the same as pretty much every other modern facial recognition system.
But I am more concerned if, say, a young adult who was 20 was misidentified as a 15 year old and refused smokes. This would really, really piss people off (smokers can be very attached to the little fags, it seems). 
The only way I can see this working at all without causing anger is if the machine required a piece of ID (ie, drivers licence) and a face scan which would be compared with a previous face scan taken when the ID was issue, to see if they match. This way, one couldn't simply borrow a piece of id to swipe in the machine, as their face wouldnt be same as on the ID. 
But this would require facial scans to be taken with every new ID issued, which would raise even more privacy issues, cost, etc, etc. 
And all that to do what a guy working the midnight shift at 7-11 does; compare the looks of the guy presenting the ID with the picture on the ID. 
I wonder which would be faster? (Ive had than undeniably grade-school droppout stare at my ID for >5 seconds on many occasions....)