美国国家公共电台 NPR It Ain't Me, Babe: Researchers Find Flaws In Police Facial Recognition Technology

It Ain't Me, Babe: Researchers Find Flaws In Police Facial Recognition Technology

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And here's a statistic² that surprised me - nearly half of all American adults have been entered into law enforcement facial recognition databases. That's according to a report from Georgetown University Law School. NPR's Laura Sydell reports on the forensic³ use of that technology and the many problems with its accuracy.

LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE⁴: There's a good chance your driver's license⁵ is in one of the databases. The Georgetown report says there's more than 117 million photos. Facial recognition can be used, say, when investigators⁶ have a picture of a suspect and they don't have a name. They can run the photo through a facial recognition program to see if it matches any of the license photos. It's kind of like a very large digital version of a lineup.

JONATHAN FRANKLE: Instead of having a lineup of five people who have been brought in off the street to do this, the lineup is you. You're in that lineup all the time.

SYDELL: This is Jonathan Frankle, a computer scientist and one of the authors of the report just put out by Georgetown University Law School's Center on Privacy and Technology. Frankle says the photos the police may have of a suspect aren't always that good. They're often from a security camera.

FRANKLE: Security cameras tend to be mounted on the ceiling. 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.

SYDELL: And Frankle says their 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 just be lighting⁷.

FRANKLE: Darker skin has less color contrast. And these algorithms rely on being able to pick out little patterns in color to be able to tell people apart.

SYDELL: Because of its flaws, facial recognition technology does bring a lot of innocent people to the attention of law enforcement. And Patrick Grother says most people have a few doppelgangers out there. He's a computer scientist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the U.S. Commerce Department.

PATRICK GROTHER: The larger you go, the greater the chance of a false positive. Inevitably⁸, if you look at a billion people, you will find somebody that looks quite similar.

SYDELL: And even with the photos taken at the Department of Motor Vehicles, there can be differences in how they're shot. Grother thinks if those photos are going to be used for facial recognition, there needs to be more uniform standards in lighting, height, focus.

GROTHER: Without those things, without those technical specifications⁹, then face recognition can be undermined.

SYDELL: And yet, it's sophisticated enough to be useful in critical situations. Anil Jain, a computer science professor at Michigan State University, did an experiment after the Tsarnaev brothers, who committed the Boston Marathon bombing, were caught. He wanted to see if facial recognition technology could have helped police name them sooner. Police had photos of them from a security camera. Jain ran those photos against a database of a million driver's licenses¹⁰. The software found 10 matches for the younger brother.

ANIL JAIN: We were able to locate him in the top 10 candidates. But the older brother, we couldn't locate, and the reason was he was wearing those dark glasses.

SYDELL: Of course, it did identify nine people who were not guilty. In a statement responding to the Georgetown study, the FBI says it only uses facial recognition as an investigative lead, not for positive identification. The Georgetown authors aren't saying that this technology should never be used, only that lawmakers need to create standards. Otherwise, it can be misused¹¹ and harm innocent people. Laura Sydell, NPR News.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 statistic   

n.统计量；adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• Official statistics show real wages declining by 24%.官方统计数字表明实际工资下降了24%。
• There are no reliable statistics for the number of deaths in the battle.关于阵亡人数没有可靠的统计数字。

3 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

6 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

8 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

9 specifications   

n.规格；载明；详述；（产品等的）说明书；说明书( specification的名词复数 )；详细的计划书；载明；详述

参考例句：

• Our work must answer the specifications laid down. 我们的工作应符合所定的规范。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This sketch does not conform with the specifications. 图文不符。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 licenses   

n.执照( license的名词复数 )v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Drivers have ten days' grace to renew their licenses. 驾驶员更换执照有10天的宽限期。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Jewish firms couldn't get import or export licenses or raw materials. 犹太人的企业得不到进出口许可证或原料。 来自辞典例句

11 misused   

v.使用…不当( misuse的过去式和过去分词 )；把…派作不正当的用途；虐待；滥用

参考例句：

• He misused his dog shamefully. 他可耻地虐待自己的狗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had grossly misused his power. 他严重滥用职权。 来自《简明英汉词典》