Most of us hate our passport photos; most of us at The Women’s Travel Group do. We take them in a vending booth, Staples, Fedex office or some other commercial space where we muster up a smile in front of strangers. Now here is the news: paper identification like a passport or license is moving to image recognition. Some of you already use images to open your smart phone.
Image recognition might also be familiar if you use Clear. Clear is a private company that photos your iris’s for identification. Clear operates at some major airports and some large public spaces like stadiums. TSA PreCheck is government owned, available at more airports with a designated line for quicker security wait times.
Clear works like this: You register your eyes the first time you use Clear. After that, you look into the computer which will recognize your iris. You are walked by a Clear staffer to the front of the TSA line. Clear costs $$ but it comes free with some higher level credit cards. If you are adding family members to your Clear account, the economics are better. It is guaranteed you will hate what you look like in the Clear camera.
Image recognition is creeping up. At the gate as you board your plane, you might not need to show id or a passport. A camera will snap your image and you are done. Images are used for entry to other secure areas. Images might become your new front door key.
Here are some issues to know; some of these also relate to your passport photo; passport photo rules are a high standard to work with, for image recognition situations.
Glasses, especially reflective sunglasses, can stop the computer from measuring/identifying you correctly.
Dramatic plastic surgery and large amounts of scarring or tattoos/piercings can confuse the camera.
Losing or gaining a huge amount of weight might interfere.
Hair color and style? not important but put down on your documents your natural color or the color you usually have.
Cosmetics are not important.
Earrings and jewelry not important.
Facial hair not important.
For those of you who like to dig deeper, image recognition uses an algorithm based on minute measurements. Sort of a Chuck Close painting idea. There is heavy discussion about its use commercially or politically. Recently James Dolan’s Madison Square Entertainment Company was sued for using it to bar any individual whose law firm was suing him. In China it has been used politically. In Britain where you are photographed some 300 times a day, images were used to catch the bus bombers same day. The Women’s Travel Group likes image recognition; it offers security and less hard copy stuff to carry around. Call us at 646 309 5607 and check out our award winning tours for women here.
A tiny sign says you can opt out of TSA’s image recognition, fyi.
