Asian man has his photo rejected by passport software because his 'eyes were closed'

[yuiyoshida]

Today in racist robots: A New Zealand man of Asian descent had his passport photograph rejected with the facial recognition software claiming that his eyes were closed... despite the fact that they were clearly open.

A 22-year-old engineering student named Richard Lee encountered the flaw in New Zealand Internal Affair's online passport photo checker while trying to renew his passport earlier this week. The awkward reason for his rejection eventually found its way onto Facebook.

"The photo you want to upload does not meet our criteria because subjects eyes are closed," the message read.

However, Lee took it all in stride, resubmitting pictures until one was accepted. He was informed by a spokesperson that "uneven lighting on the face" had caused his photos to be rejected.

"No hard feelings on my part, I've always had very small eyes and facial recognition technology is relatively new and unsophisticated," Lee told Reuters. "It was a robot, no hard feelings. I got my passport renewed in the end."

http://shanghaiist.com/2016/12/07/new_zealand_racist_passport_robot.php

[Hortensis]

1. Sensible man. Good for him.

(Unfortunately, no doubt somewhere there's someone perennially resentful person ranting about fascist robot bigotry, American democracy's dead, etc.)