London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Jun 30, 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

0:00
0:00
Close
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
Trump Administration Considers Withdrawal of Funding for Hospitals Providing Gender Treatment to Minors
Texas Enacts Law Allowing Gold and Silver Transactions
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
OpenAI Secures Multimillion-Dollar AI Contracts with Pentagon, India, and Grab
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Germany Votes to Suspend Family Reunification for Asylum Seekers
Elon Musk Critiques Senate Budget Proposal Over Job Losses and Strategic Risks
Los Angeles Riots ended with Federal Investigations into Funding
Budapest Pride Parade Draws 200,000 Participants Amid Government Ban
Southern Europe Experiences Extreme Heat
Xiaomi's YU7 SUV Launch Garners Record Pre-Orders Amid Market Challenges
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's Lavish Wedding in Venice
Russia Launches Largest Air Assault on Ukraine Since Invasion
Education Secretary Announces Overhaul of Complaints System Amid Rising Parental Grievances
Massive Anti-Government Protests Erupt in Belgrade
Trump Ends Trade Talks with Canada Over Digital Services Tax
UK Government Softens Welfare Reform Plans Amid Labour Party Rebellion
Labour Faces Rebellion Over Disability Benefit Reforms Ahead of Key Vote
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Host Lavish Wedding in Venice Amid Protests
Trump Asserts Readiness for Further Strikes on Iran Amid Nuclear Tensions
North Korea to Open New Beach Resort to Boost Tourism Economy
UK Labour Party Faces Internal Tensions Over Welfare Reforms
Andrew Cuomo Hints at Potential November Comeback Amid Democratic Primary Results
Curtis Sliwa Champions His Vision for New York City Amid Rising Crime Concerns
Federal Reserve Proposes Changes to Capital Rule Affecting Major Banks
EU TO HUNGARY: LET THEM PRIDE OR PREP FOR SHADE. ORBÁN TO EU: STAY IN YOUR LANE AND FIX YOUR OWN MESS.
Trump Escalates Criticism of Media Over Iran Strike Coverage
Trump Announces Upcoming US-Iran Meeting Amid Controversial Airstrikes
Trump Moves to Reshape Middle East Following Israel-Iran Conflict
Big Four Accounting Firms Fined in Exam Cheating Scandal
NATO Members Agree to 5% Defense Spending Target by 2035
Australia's Star Casino Secures $195 Million Rescue Package Amid Challenges
UK to Enhance Nuclear Capabilities with Acquisition of F-35A Fighter Jets
Russian Shadow Payments via Cryptocurrency Reach $9 Billion
Explosions Rock Doha as Iranian Missiles Target Qatar
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Airlines Evaluate Flight Cancellations Amid Escalating US-Iran Tensions
Starmer Invites Innovators to Join Government Talent Scheme
UK Economy’s Strong Opening Quarter Shows Signs of Cooling
Harrods Seeks Court Order to Secure Al Fayed Estate for Victims
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
×