Magazine Images as Fake IDs - Face-Recognition Vending Machines Fail

“Are you going to buy it with your good looks or mine?” As it turns out, underage smokers in Japan can easily buy cigarettes using someone else’s photo or an image from a magazine.

Most of Japan’s 570,000 cigarette vending machines are being outfitted with RFID readers that check the purchaser’s Taspo age-verification card. For those who don’t have a card, they can buy their cigarettes over the counter or from one of 4,000 face-recognition vending machines. The system compares the buyer’s face to a database of over 100,000 people, looking for signs of old age. It seems, however, that the system can be tricked by holding up a photograph of someone else.