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Magazine Photos Fool Age-verification Cameras
gregor-e writes "Japan has scheduled a full-scale rollout of visual age-verification on cigarette vending machines. Unfortunately for them, a Sankei Sports news reporter has determined that this system can be fooled by holding up a magazine photo of an adult."
Wow, this whole idea is fantastically stupid in so many ways. In a sense I admire the gall of whichever company sold this technology, as they must have known that it couldn't possibly work. No doubt they'll roll out some ad-hoc solution to the magazine workaround (earning themselves another hearty payday as all the machines are updated). This can be repeated for each new workaround until everyone involved retires rich and their customer is too embarrassed to admit that the whole thing was obviously a waste of money.
At least it's a tobacco company getting shafted. Can't feel too sorry for them.
apterous.org
It's funny when people try to create a complex system in which someone finds a tiny, simple hole. On a related note, wouldn't it be a better idea (and probably more cost effective than continual update to the security) to have some sort of ID scanner in addition to the cameras?
Japanese vending machines are now configured to dispense pictures of cigarettes.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Hey now! I use magazine photos and I'm neither old nor Korean! Oh wait, what were we talking about?
This guy's the limit!
I'm one of those adults. I'm 28 and if I walk around with a backpack on I will get pulled over for smoking. been pulled over for curfew, ditching class etc. I would be pretty annoyed if I had to carry around a fake beard just to buy cigs.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
BTW it is easy to fix this if the machine asks the people to move
Or better yet, add a second eye to make sure the subject has... depth!
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
Their place is in an age-restricted building or room.
Cigarette vending machines in bars, casinos, adult-entertainment establishments, and other placed where Junior can't get in without bribing the doorman, er, I mean presenting a convincing fake id, are no problem.
If they really wanted to handle this with a machine, they would make you insert your driver's license, tell you to close either your left eye or right eye or make some other facial expression at random, then compare the faces. They would double-check with the driver's license database to make sure the face on the license matched the face on record.
Thankfully, we aren't quite to this 1984 scenario yet, but this is coming.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
They are Japanese.
You really think THEY didn't come up with that technical idea by now?
TFA:
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
So this machine can determine 17 from 18 accurately? That would be a good iPhone app!
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Goodbye old-people photos, hello old-people masks?
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Steal a picture of the CEO, photocopy, put it back, hold up in front of your face when trying to access the secret room and let it scan you.
God I wasted so many damn hours on that game.
Karma: Non-Heinous
Never send a computer to do a human's work.
This story immediately reminded me of the 12 year old me guessing my way through the quiz before playing Leisure Suit Larry.
Who the hell is Spiro Agnew? LSL taught me.
Also, why didn't I find out Alt-X would skip that quiz until nearly 20 years later?
mr.
I had to carry around a fake beard just to buy cigs.
--
I quit sigs.
You should quit cigs too.
They did. Read this thread more accurate. A possible solution would be to place digital photo on RFID chip and let face-recognition software compare both faces. But if a kid wants to buy cigarettes, it will buy it. By taking his father's RFID and printing his photo, for example. The cigarette machines are the real problem. Disassemble them, make only a few authorized sellers sell cigarettes anyway and make sure those few do have strict age controls.
Problem But tobacco companies' lobby will do anything to prevent it. So will do nicotine-addicted to get another cigarette.
more likely temperature. When taking a urine sample for example, one of the things the tester does immediately is check the temperature of the sample. This helps prevent people from bringing in a medicine bottle etc with a 'clean' sample to drop in the cup. if it measures much below 95 deg, they will know you brought it in.
Reminds me of something I read awhile back, guy tried this stunt and didn't get caught until later. "Mr Doe you'll be happy to know you passed your drug test. The doctors also felt they should inform you that you are approximately two months pregnant." oops...
So expect thermal (I.R.) sensors. Most digital cameras (CCDs) are highly IR sensitive anyway if you remove their IR filter, so this has to be a really easy mod for them to make. Won't be terribly easy to fool. A bit like those thermometers used to measure high temperatures of materials. They usually have a red laser light dot shine on the target, but that's purely for aiming. It shows where the IR sensor in the test unit is focused on. They can do this same thing with the face presented to measure the surface temp of the image. (without needing the red laser dot since the target is being presented in a known location)
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
No no, you're thinking of Japan.
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
The solution is obvious: make it illegal to sell magazines with pictures of adults to minors.