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173
New Zealand Passport Photo Checker Rejects Asian Guy’s Picture, Says His Eyes Are Closed
Look at this picture of 22-year-old Richard Lee. Do his eyes look open to you? Of course they do. But that didn’t stop an automated online system from rejecting his passport renewal because, according to the facial recognition software, his eyes were deemed to be closed.
“The photo you want to upload does not meet our criteria because: subject eyes are closed,” reads the form that Richard recently posted on Facebook. The online passport checker is run by New Zealand’s department for Internal Affairs, but it clearly needs a little recalibrating in order to recognize people of different ethnicities. Fortunately the engineering student found the funny side, and his passport was renewed after a later photograph was accepted.
More info: Facebook
RELATED:
Look at this picture of 22-year-old Richard Lee. Do his eyes look open to you?
Of course they do! But not according to New Zealand’s online passport checker
He recently tried to renew his passport but the system rejected him because his eyes were apparently closed
The system helpfully provided examples of what Richard should actually look like…
Fortunately the engineering student found the funny side, and his passport was renewed after a later photograph was accepted
Maybe he would have had more luck if he looked like this
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Simon Kwan 8 years ago
Unintentional racism built into the system by myopic and racially biased programmers. Racism doesn't need to have malicious intent.
Andrew Martini 8 years ago
New Zealand especially the New Zealand Government is not rascist at all, if you want a comparison then just look at china, Singapore and most asian nations that actually do have a rascist agenda. This simply was an oddity in the the system as countkess asian New Zealanders have not had a problem renewing their passports, and obviously have been accepted as NZ citizens. Therefore let's put some perspective on the situation instead of malevolently reading more into it than it was.
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Lorraine 8 years ago
That's why Asians have great peripheral vision too :D
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Simon Kwan 8 years ago
Unintentional racism built into the system by myopic and racially biased programmers. Racism doesn't need to have malicious intent.
Andrew Martini 8 years ago
New Zealand especially the New Zealand Government is not rascist at all, if you want a comparison then just look at china, Singapore and most asian nations that actually do have a rascist agenda. This simply was an oddity in the the system as countkess asian New Zealanders have not had a problem renewing their passports, and obviously have been accepted as NZ citizens. Therefore let's put some perspective on the situation instead of malevolently reading more into it than it was.
Load More Replies... Lorraine 8 years ago
That's why Asians have great peripheral vision too :D
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