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Technology

Face recognition struggles to recognise us after five years of ageing

As we age, our faces change, becoming slowly different from images used for facial recognition – so new photos may be needed more frequently to maintain accuracy and security

By Matthew Sparkes

24 August 2022

Ageing shown through a selection of photos

Our face changes faster when we are young or old

Base image: Karras, T. et al. Age processing: Alaluf, Y. et al.

We can age as little as five years before face-recognition algorithms begin to struggle to identify us as the same person. This means systems that rely on facial recognition may need to get new images of users periodically or risk being unable to verify who they are.

Face recognition is now used at border crossings, by police to watch for known offenders in public and even to unlock our phones. But there has been little research on how these systems…

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