“Security cameras tend to be mounted on the ceiling,” he says. “They get great views of the top of your head, not very great views of your face. And you can now imagine why this would be a very difficult task, why it’s hard to get an accurate read on anybody’s face and match them with their driver’s license photo.”
And Frankle says the study also found evidence that facial recognition software didn’t work as well with people who are dark skinned. There’s still limited research on why this is. Some critics say the developers aren’t testing the software against a diverse enough group of faces. Or it could be lighting.
“Darker skin has less color contrast. And these algorithms rely on being able to pick out little patterns and color to be able to tell people apart,” Frankle says.
Because of its flaws, facial recognition technology does bring a lot of innocent people to the attention of law enforcement.
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