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November 29, 2004 1:29 PM   Subscribe

Don't smile or else Johnny Law will get you!
posted by Bag Man (13 comments total)
 
Well ... I guess SOMEthing has to be the least troubling change to travel and border control policies since 9/11.
posted by coelecanth at 1:50 PM on November 29, 2004


Smile when you say that!
posted by ba at 1:50 PM on November 29, 2004


Actually, it is because, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization standards, the reason is that [smiling] distorts other facial features, for example your eyes, so you're supposed to have a neutral expression. They have determined that to have the most neutral face is the most desirable standard for any type of identification."

Denis Chagnon, spokesman for the International Civil Aviation Organization at its regional office in Montreal, already had fielded the no-smile question last year, when his organization promulgated the new standards for photos and Canada adapted them.

"Ahh, ahh, yes. Very simple. And it's interesting because it made the headlines here in Canada to the effect that you can't smile in Canada anymore. In May 2003, ICAO issued guidelines on the use of biometric information for machine-readable passports."


So this idea is based on the recommendations of an independent international group, which have already been adopted by Canada. I guess this is yet another sign of America's slide towards fascism!
posted by pardonyou? at 1:51 PM on November 29, 2004


The no smile rule has been around in Canada for awhile, as noted in the article, and it has not, thus far, led to the downfall of civilization in this country.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:55 PM on November 29, 2004


Fascism? The downfall of civilization? And here I was thinking this post was about how the new rule is so hard to find.
posted by malaprohibita at 2:00 PM on November 29, 2004


Perhaps they should require expressions of horror and apprehension instead? Would be easier to match the ID to the person, certainly.

Or alternately, to make our world a better place, we should REQUIRE smiling, jocular expressions on all Id cards -- and then, to aid in identification, security officers would be required to tell jokes and act silly in an attempt to recreate the joviality present in the photograph. I would suggest outrageous hot dog costumes and the like.
posted by undule at 2:45 PM on November 29, 2004


Go ahead and smile on your passport photo. Just makes sure to flash that gigantic, dorky American smile when the Chinese border guard takes you aside for extra questioning.
posted by nathan_teske at 2:51 PM on November 29, 2004


Funny, for as long as I could recall, smiling for passport or other Federal IDs was frowned upon.
posted by vevaphon at 2:57 PM on November 29, 2004


Passports have never allowed smiles. It sounds like they just recently changed the visa photo requirement to match the passport one, and someone got caught by the change. Too bad, I like the old 3/4 view photos on visas.
posted by smackfu at 3:03 PM on November 29, 2004


You can still feel free to wear colored contact lenses when having your passport photo taken, however.
posted by clevershark at 4:10 PM on November 29, 2004


This actually makes a fair bit of sense. As I recall, most facial recognition systems recognize a series of points around the mouth, nose and eyes, and use one of several general approaches with the distance between them. Smiling, especially wide enough to show teeth (I don't think teeth themselves would screw things up) changes the dimensions around the mouth, and maybe even the eyes if you flash a big ol' Jim Carrey mug.

If an ID with a trusted name can be used by a bad guy, then the ID system is not worth much. Tying on the ID to the person with a biometrically readable picture makes it that much harder to use the document fraudulently.
posted by allan at 4:31 PM on November 29, 2004


My passport photo has me squinting horribly AND smiling. The security guy at the terminal in Heathrow, after looking at it, said to me in a very angry tone, "Your eyes are closed." I replied, "I know."

He seemed to take my squintiness so personally...
posted by deafmute at 6:18 PM on November 29, 2004


Weird. "Actually, the Department of Homeland Security has outlawed smiling" is my standard joke when I take passport/visa photos at work. Go fig. So I guess now when I have to take a picture of a baby I need to spend half my day trying to get them to not-cry and not-smile because of their gross threat to my country's safety.
posted by Skwirl at 10:17 AM on November 30, 2004


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