Scientists have invented a new way to cheat facial recognition systems

[Brother]

Every day, facial recognition systems are becoming more complex and are increasingly used in ubiquitous life, for example, last year Apple released the iPhone X smartphone equipped with the Face ID biometric system. However, such systems can be fooled, in particular, using infrared LEDs. Infrared rays are not visible to the naked eye, but most cameras can pick up infrared signals.

Chinese researchers have created a baseball cap equipped with miniature infrared LEDs, which are placed in such a way that the infrared rays striking the headdress's face help not only hide their identity, but also "impersonate another person for face-based authentication." ... This task is more complex and requires the use of a deep neural network to recognize a static image of the face and correctly project infrared rays onto the impostor's face.

To test their theory, the researchers used photographs of four random people, they were able to trick face recognition systems in 70% of cases, provided there was a slight external similarity between the victim and the impostor.

“Based on our findings and attacks, we can conclude that today's face recognition can hardly be called safe and reliable in terms of critical scenarios such as authentication and surveillance,” the researchers concluded. They also added that infrared LEDs can be hidden not only in baseball caps, but also in umbrellas, hair or wigs.

Recall that shortly after the release of the iPhone 13, Vietnamese researchers managed to unlock the Face ID system on the first try using a specially created mask.