scholarly journals Hyper-realistic Face Masks in a Live Passport-Checking Task

Perception ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-309
Author(s):  
David J. Robertson ◽  
Jet G. Sanders ◽  
Alice Towler ◽  
Robin S. S. Kramer ◽  
Josh Spowage ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Tests ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Science Museum ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Identity Verification ◽  
Unfamiliar Face Matching ◽  
Unfamiliar Face ◽  
Close Range ◽  
Matching Performance

Hyper-realistic face masks have been used as disguises in at least one border crossing and in numerous criminal cases. Experimental tests using these masks have shown that viewers accept them as real faces under a range of conditions. Here, we tested mask detection in a live identity verification task. Fifty-four visitors at the London Science Museum viewed a mask wearer at close range (2 m) as part of a mock passport check. They then answered a series of questions designed to assess mask detection, while the masked traveller was still in view. In the identity matching task, 8% of viewers accepted the mask as matching a real photo of someone else, and 82% accepted the match between masked person and masked photo. When asked if there was any reason to detain the traveller, only 13% of viewers mentioned a mask. A further 11% picked disguise from a list of suggested reasons. Even after reading about mask-related fraud, 10% of viewers judged that the traveller was not wearing a mask. Overall, mask detection was poor and was not predicted by unfamiliar face matching performance. We conclude that hyper-realistic face masks could go undetected during live identity checks.

scholarly journals A grey area: How does image hue affect unfamiliar face matching?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna K Bobak ◽  
Viktoria Roumenova Mileva ◽  
Peter Hancock
Keyword(s):  
Matching Task ◽  
Mixed Condition ◽  
Face Matching ◽  
Matching Test ◽  
Unfamiliar Face Matching ◽  
Unfamiliar Face ◽  
Matching Performance ◽  
Small Decline ◽  
Clear Shift

The role of image colour in face identification has received little attention in research despite the importance of identifying people from photographs in identity documents (IDs). Here, in two experiments, we investigated whether colour congruency of two photographs shown side by side affects face matching accuracy. Participants were presented with two images from the Models Face Matching Test (Experiment 1) and a newly devised matching task incorporating female faces (Experiment 2) and asked to decide whether they show the same person, or two different people. The photographs were either both in colour, both in grayscale, or mixed (one in grayscale and one in colour). Participants were more likely to accept a pair of images as a “match”, i.e. same person, in the mixed condition, regardless of whether the identity of the pair was the same or not. This demonstrates a clear shift in bias between “congruent” colour conditions and the mixed trials. In addition, there was a small decline in accuracy in the mixed condition, relative to when the images were presented in colour. Our study provides the first evidence that the hue of document photographs matters for face matching performance. This finding has important implications for the design and regulation of photographic ID worldwide.

Within-person variability can improve the identification of unfamiliar faces across changes in viewpoint

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110097
Author(s):  
Niamh Hunnisett ◽  
Simone Favelle
Keyword(s):  
Image Matching ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Target Image ◽  
Front View ◽  
Multiple Image ◽  
Profile View ◽  
Unfamiliar Face ◽  
Matching Performance ◽  
Sequential Matching ◽  
Unfamiliar Faces

Unfamiliar face identification is concerningly error prone, especially across changes in viewing conditions. Within-person variability has been shown to improve matching performance for unfamiliar faces, but this has only been demonstrated using images of a front view. In this study, we test whether the advantage of within-person variability from front views extends to matching to target images of a face rotated in view. Participants completed either a simultaneous matching task (Experiment 1) or a sequential matching task (Experiment 2) in which they were tested on their ability to match the identity of a face shown in an array of either one or three ambient front-view images, with a target image shown in front, three-quarter, or profile view. While the effect was stronger in Experiment 2, we found a consistent pattern in match trials across both experiments in that there was a multiple image matching benefit for front, three-quarter, and profile-view targets. We found multiple image effects for match trials only, indicating that providing observers with multiple ambient images confers an advantage for recognising different images of the same identity but not for discriminating between images of different identities. Signal detection measures also indicate a multiple image advantage despite a more liberal response bias for multiple image trials. Our results show that within-person variability information for unfamiliar faces can be generalised across views and can provide insights into the initial processes involved in the representation of familiar faces.

scholarly journals Unfamiliar Face Matching With Driving Licence and Passport Photographs

Perception ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin S. S. Kramer ◽  
Sophie Mohamed ◽  
Sarah C. Hardy
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Ecological Validity ◽  
Current Work ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Performance Levels ◽  
Driving Licence ◽  
Face Matching ◽  
Unfamiliar Face Matching ◽  
Unfamiliar Face

Matching two different images of an unfamiliar face is difficult, although we rely on this process every day when proving our identity. Although previous work with laboratory photosets has shown that performance is error-prone, few studies have focussed on how accurately people carry out this matching task using photographs taken from official forms of identification. In Experiment 1, participants matched high-resolution, colour face photos with current UK driving licence photos of the same group of people in a sorting task. Averaging 19 mistaken pairings out of 30, our results showed that this task was both difficult and error-prone. In Experiment 2, high-resolution photographs were paired with either driving licence or passport photographs in a typical pairwise matching paradigm. We found no difference in performance levels for the two types of ID image, with both producing unacceptable levels of accuracy (around 75%–79% correct). The current work benefits from increased ecological validity and provides a clear demonstration that these forms of official identification are ineffective and alternatives should be considered.

scholarly journals Understanding professional expertise in unfamiliar face matching

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David White ◽  
Alice Towler ◽  
Richard Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Identity Verification ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
The Public ◽  
Face Matching ◽  
The People ◽  
Unfamiliar Face Matching ◽  
Unfamiliar Face ◽  
Specialist Groups ◽  
Modern Identity

Deciding whether or not two images are of the same unfamiliar face is an important task in many professions. These decisions are a critical part of modern identity verification processes with direct – and often profound – consequences for individual rights and the security of society. As a result, the public expect the people entrusted with these decisions to perform accurately. But do they? Here we review 29 published tests comparing face matching accuracy in professional and novice groups. Twelve of these tests show no significant differences between professional and novice groups, suggesting that merely performing the task in daily work is not sufficient to improve accuracy. However, specialist groups of Facial Examiners and Police Super- recognisers consistently outperform novices. Staff selection, mentorship, deliberate practice, motivation, feedback and training may all contribute to enhancing the performance of individuals working in these groups and future research is necessary to delineate their relative contributions.

scholarly journals Redesigning photo-ID to improve unfamiliar face matching performance.

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
David White ◽  
A. Mike Burton ◽  
Rob Jenkins ◽  
Richard I. Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Face Matching ◽  
Unfamiliar Face Matching ◽  
Unfamiliar Face ◽  
Matching Performance

Exploring Levels of Face Familiarity by Using an Indirect Face-Matching Measure

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3335 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 985-994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Clutterbuck ◽  
Robert A Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Indirect Measure ◽  
Face Matching ◽  
External Feature ◽  
Unfamiliar Face ◽  
Matching Performance ◽  
Unfamiliar Faces

An experiment is reported in which participants matched complete images of unfamiliar, moderately familiar, and highly familiar faces with simultaneously presented images of internal and external features. Participants had to decide if the two images depicted same or different individuals. Matches to internal features were made faster to highly familiar faces than both to moderately familiar and to unfamiliar faces, and matches to moderately familiar faces were made faster than to unfamiliar faces. For external feature matches, this advantage was only found for “different” decision matches to highly familiar faces compared to unfamiliar faces. The results indicate that the differences in familiar and unfamiliar face processing are not the result of all-or-none effects, but seem to have a graded impact on matching performance. These findings extend the earlier work of Young et al (1985 Perception14 737–746), and we discuss the possibility of using the matching task as an indirect measure of face familiarity.

scholarly journals Unfamiliar face matching with photographs of infants and children

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin S.S. Kramer ◽  
Jerrica Mulgrew ◽  
Michael G. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Infants And Children ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Short Version ◽  
Photo Identification ◽  
Face Matching ◽  
Matching Test ◽  
Unfamiliar Face Matching ◽  
Unfamiliar Face ◽  
Image Set ◽  
Low Levels

Background Infants and children travel using passports that are typically valid for five years (e.g. Canada, United Kingdom, United States and Australia). These individuals may also need to be identified using images taken from videos and other sources in forensic situations including child exploitation cases. However, few researchers have examined how useful these images are as a means of identification. Methods We investigated the effectiveness of photo identification for infants and children using a face matching task, where participants were presented with two images simultaneously and asked whether the images depicted the same child or two different children. In Experiment 1, both images showed an infant (<1 year old), whereas in Experiment 2, one image again showed an infant but the second image of the child was taken at 4–5 years of age. In Experiments 3a and 3b, we asked participants to complete shortened versions of both these tasks (selecting the most difficult trials) as well as the short version Glasgow face matching test. Finally, in Experiment 4, we investigated whether information regarding the sex of the infants and children could be accurately perceived from the images. Results In Experiment 1, we found low levels of performance (72% accuracy) for matching two infant photos. For Experiment 2, performance was lower still (64% accuracy) when infant and child images were presented, given the significant changes in appearance that occur over the first five years of life. In Experiments 3a and 3b, when participants completed both these tasks, as well as a measure of adult face matching ability, we found lowest performance for the two infant tasks, along with mixed evidence of within-person correlations in sensitivities across all three tasks. The use of only same-sex pairings on mismatch trials, in comparison with random pairings, had little effect on performance measures. In Experiment 4, accuracy when judging the sex of infants was at chance levels for one image set and above chance (although still low) for the other set. As expected, participants were able to judge the sex of children (aged 4–5) from their faces. Discussion Identity matching with infant and child images resulted in low levels of performance, which were significantly worse than for an adult face matching task. Taken together, the results of the experiments presented here provide evidence that child facial photographs are ineffective for use in real-world identification.

scholarly journals Understanding Professional Expertise in Unfamiliar Face Matching

2021 ◽  
pp. 62-88
Author(s):  
David White ◽  
Alice Towler ◽  
Richard I. Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Identity Verification ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
The Public ◽  
Face Matching ◽  
The People ◽  
Unfamiliar Face Matching ◽  
Unfamiliar Face ◽  
Specialist Groups ◽  
Modern Identity

Deciding whether or not two images are of the same unfamiliar face is an important task in many professions. These decisions are a critical part of modern identity verification processes with direct—and often profound—consequences for individual rights and the security of society. As a result, the public expect the people entrusted with these decisions to perform accurately. But do they? Here we review 29 published tests comparing face matching accuracy in professional and novice groups. Twelve of these tests show no significant differences between professional and novice groups, suggesting that merely performing the task in daily work is not sufficient to improve accuracy. However, specialist groups of facial examiners and police super-recognizers consistently outperform novices. Staff selection, mentorship, deliberate practice, motivation, feedback and training may all contribute to enhancing the performance of individuals working in these groups, and future research is necessary to delineate their relative contributions.

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