State using facial recognition technology to prevent identity theft
OLYMPIA -- Face by face, the state is going high tech to stop identity thieves every day.
The Department of Licensing is using facial recognition scans to compare your drivers license picture to other pictures in the DOL database. The goal is to make sure every picture only matches up to one name.
So far, the system is flagging more than 10 photos each day.
"It's really math-based," said Tony Sermonti, DOL spokesman. "So it's not really comparing my face to yours. What's it is doing is comparing how far apart my ears are compared to yours. So its really a helpful tool."
A federal grant paid for the technology. The state started applying it to all licenses last month.
The Department of Licensing is using facial recognition scans to compare your drivers license picture to other pictures in the DOL database. The goal is to make sure every picture only matches up to one name.
So far, the system is flagging more than 10 photos each day.
"It's really math-based," said Tony Sermonti, DOL spokesman. "So it's not really comparing my face to yours. What's it is doing is comparing how far apart my ears are compared to yours. So its really a helpful tool."
A federal grant paid for the technology. The state started applying it to all licenses last month.
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