Robot racism: New Zealand auto passport system fails to see Asian man’s eyes - TomoNews

NEW ZEALAND — A New Zealand man of East Asian-descent found himself having trouble renewing his passport on the government’s online website for a strange reason – it could not detect his eyes. Aerospace Engineering student and DJ Richard Lee was born in Taiwan, but raised in New Zealand. A citizen of New Zealand, when it came time to renew his passport on December 6, he had some trouble with the government’s online portal. Lee’s standard passport photos looked appear fine, but when he tried to upload them onto the New Zealand government website, the site rejected his application. Lee attempted to submit the photos two more times, but again and again, the automated system responded with “Subject eyes are closed.” When Lee contacted Internal Affairs to find out what the real reason was, he was told “uneven lighting on the face” caused his photo to be rejected. Finding humor in the failures of the system’s facial recognition technology, Lee used a Snapchat filter to add some absurdity to point out the website’s gaffe. After retaking his photos soon after, his new shots were accepted, and his passport finally renewed.