Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Face masks are screwing up facial recognition software

Face masks are screwing up facial recognition software

Face masks are already known to stop the spread of coronavirus. Apparently, they can also make it much harder for facial-recognition software to identify you, too.
This is the key finding of a new report released Monday from federal researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, which is a branch of the US Commerce Department whose functions include measuring the accuracy of facial-recognition algorithms that companies and researchers submit to the lab.

When tasked with matching a picture of a person wearing a digitally added face mask to a different photo of the person without one, the most accurate facial-recognition algorithms failed to make a correct match between 5% and 50% of the time, according to the report. Generally speaking, most of the algorithms tested had failure rates of between 20% and 50%, Mei Ngan, a computer scientist at NIST and an author of the report, told CNN Business.

The identification issues make sense, as facial-recognition systems typically work by comparing measurements between different facial features in one image to those in another. Blocking off part of the face means there is less information for the software to use to make a match.

It highlights a unique challenge the tech industry is already working to confront as the pandemic continues. While the technology is controversial, with a number of companies recently rethinking providing this technology to law enforcement, it's used in a range of products and services, from using your face to unlock your smartphone to passing through a security checkpoint.

For their report, the researchers created nine different black and light blue mask shapes to account for the ways mask shapes vary in the real world and used them to hide part of a person's face in a photo. They then compared a digitally masked photo of each person with another, unmasked photo of the same person. They also conducted a test of the algorithms on both sets of photos with no virtual masks.

In all, they tested 89 algorithms on more than 6 million photos featuring a million different people. The photos came from two sources: applications for US immigration benefits, which were used as the unmasked images, and photos of travelers crossing a border to enter the US, which were given a digital mask.

NIST found that the best of these algorithms -— which were submitted to the lab before mid-March — failed just 0.3% of the time when tested on these same sets of photos without the digital masks. With the digital masks on, however, error rates climbed to 5% among these same algorithms.

An obvious shortcoming of the report is that NIST didn't test the algorithms on images of people who were actually wearing masks — Ngan said the digital approximations of masks were used due to time and resource constraints. On the plus side, it allowed researchers to quickly get a sense of the effect of masks on the algorithms, but real masks fit differently on different people. It's still unknown how texture or patterns might affect accuracy of facial recognition software.

"That's something we want to look at," Ngan said.

Some companies have said their facial-recognition technology can work with masks, and Ngan said she's heard from developers who are working on algorithms meant to make this possible — perhaps by training an algorithm with lots of images of people wearing actual masks, or by targeting the region of the face above the middle of the nose.

That's a focus for Marios Savvides, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies biometric identification. He said a person who's wearing a mask can be essentially invisible to a facial-recognition system, as it doesn't even detect a face in the first place. He thinks the region of the face that includes the eyes and eyebrows tends to change the least over time, which makes it a good part of the face to use when trying to identify a person whose mouth and nose are hidden.

The NIST report is the first of several that the lab plans to issue about how facial-recognition algorithms identify masked faces. In the fall, Ngan said, NIST expects to release a report on the accuracy of algorithms that were specifically created with the intention of spotting people in masks.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Trump Backs Putin’s Land-for-Peace Proposal Amid Kyiv’s Rejection
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
United States Sells Luxury Yacht Amadea, Valued at Approximately $325 Million, in First Sale of a Seized Russian Yacht Since the Invasion of Ukraine
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
Germany Enters Fiscal Crisis as Cabinet Approves €174 Billion in New Debt
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Mediators Edge Closer to Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement
Germany Seeks Taliban Deal to Deport Afghan Migrants
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
×