Using Facial Recognition to Fight Terror
L O N D O N, Sept. 19, 2004 -- During the 1940s, supporting the war effort was everyone's job. The old slogan was, "Loose lips sink ships."
Now being tight-lipped is once again a patriotic duty — at least in Britain, and at least for passport photos. The new watchword is: "Don't smile."
For a U.S. passport, it's still legal to say, "Cheese!" and give a big grin. But in Britain, and a growing number of other countries, concern about terrorism is literally wiping the smiles from people's faces.
The U.K. recently adopted strict new rules for passport photos: Face forward, look straight at the camera, expression neutral, no smiling, and, God forbid, no teeth.
Britain isn't alone. Canada banned smiling a year ago. In fact, more than 100 other nations are expected to do the same, under new standards adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
The reason given is biometrics scanners, which use facial recognition technology to compare a passport photo with pictures of every known terrorist in the world. Some officials insist that teeth can botch the process — hence the ban on smiling.
Some Britons don't seem too worried.
"Seems like a good idea," said one young British man applying for his first U.K. passport.
"I always thought you couldn't smile for a passport picture anyway," said another young woman.
‘Annie Liebowitz’ of Passport Photos
But Peter Gilbert doesn't like the ban one bit. Gilbert runs Passport Photo Service, a small hole-in-the-wall photo studio on Oxford Street in London, just around the corner from the U.S. embassy in Grovesnor Square.
Gilbert is sort of the Annie Liebowitz of passport photographers. In 50 years, he has taken a 2-by-2 snapshot of just about every celebrity in London who has ever applied for a U.S. visa or a new U.S. passport.
Even celebrities apparently can't just breeze past immigration officials, saying, "Don't you know who I am??"
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