Japan's face-authorizing cigarette machines no match for Bruce Willis photo
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/8BXnWrCbJhR35sGVu27Iwg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTk1NQ--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/vsH31jApDGJMw1B2IzAbSw--~B/aD01MDA7dz0zNjk7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/07/bruce_willis_wants-your-children-to-smoke.jpg)
Remember those Japanese vending machines that use face recognition to scan for wrinkles and saggy skin before authenticating cigarette purchases? Surprise, they're so easy to circumvent that even a nicotine-addicted kid can do it. Turns out the cameras will authenticate "a 15-centimeter (6-inch) wide magazine photo of a man who looked to be in his 50s." Smaller clippings work too as demonstrated by a successful cigarette vend using a 3-inch photo of a woman in her 30s -- a 1-inch wide photo failed, however. Still, only 4,000 of Japan's 570,000 cigarette vending machines feature the cams and these are due for a software update in response to the flaw -- the rest use RFID readers to check the smoker's Taspo age-verification card. Nevertheless, we don't think it's much of a stretch to predict that this system, like that of DRM controlled music, is destined to fail.
[Via The Raw Feed]