If you live in Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada or Virginia, don't smile for your driver's license photo. It's illegal now.
USA Today reports, "The serious poses are urged by DMVs that have installed high-tech software that compares a new license photo with others that have already been shot." The software will raise an alarm if it detects that someone may be applying for a driver's license under a second identity. "But there's a wrinkle in the technology: a person's grin. Face-recognition software can fail to match two photos of the same person if facial expressions differ in each photo." To thwart attempts to fool the software, the states each now require a "neutral facial expression" during the beloved DMV photo shoot.
Well, only Virginia actually forbids the smile. Illinois ABC affiliate WLS-TV reports, "Indiana, Arkansas and Nevada say they will allow slight smiles on driver's licenses. Virginia is a strict no smile state."
The four states are not alone in using the software. Kicking Tires reports, "Twenty-seven other states use similar software, but they don't forbid smiling for the photos."
The issue is not trivial. Beth Langen, head of Drivers Services for the state of Illinois, tells USA Today "Photo matching has stopped 6,000 people from getting fraudulent licenses since the technology was launched in 1999" in her state.
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