Facial recognition problems

It is real!

I have encountered a problem I have never thought would happen to me. With all the super smartphones and Artificial intelligence, they should be smart enough to figure out it is still me. They don’t. Facial recognition is failing.

My phone

It all started with my phone. It started to tell me: face not detected. How not detected? My face turned into a potato or what is this? I don’t find this funny! So ok, I had to update the configuration. Things got better.

Watchdog at university

I have encountered the same problem while doing my exams at university online. The program has my photo from the time when I started studying, which is a few years back, and it somehow recognizes me through the camera. This time I had an alert showing that it was not me who was taking the exam. This was a nerve-wracking situation because I was running the risk that I would have to take the whole exam again. Luckily we all laughed at the stupidity of the program and all was fine.

My friend

The third one was a friend of mine, who hadn’t seen me in person since before the pandemic. Yes, I get it, I used to have long hair and 40 kilos more. Now the weight is missing, and my hair is almost shaved. It is a reasonable change. Poor creature, she was staring at me as if I were a ghost. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was good or bad 😀 We had a good laugh in the end.

My passport

The next thing that is still pending is my passport. I had it issued when I was at my highest weight. It means almost 50 kilos more. I am scared to death to approach the airport and show the passport to someone there. I look completely different now. What if they won’t allow me to travel? I have more questions than answers regarding this. I am likely facing a huge problem.

But as I live abroad, I would have to return to the embassy and have a new passport issued. This means traveling to the capital and having an appointment with those lovely people, they would take away my current passport and I would stay here without any documentation until a new passport arrives. This is too scary. Please don’t ask me why but it works like this. This is a horror story. A real nightmare.

My doctor

Oh, and my psychologist didn’t recognize me either. I left him with his jaw dropped 😀 he was really happy for me, just I look so different now that, yes, I am beyond recognition.

Now what?

The situations with real people are usually funny. We laugh and they remember my new me. That’s it. No need to make a drama of it. It doesn’t affect us anyhow in the real world. We only surprise people who haven’t seen us for a long time. Surprisingly, most of them liked it and they supported me in my new journey. I should thank them here.

The real problem lies in the AI and facial recognition in institutions and where it is taken as my identity. My face changed so much that the system doesn’t recognize me. Which means I will have to re-submit my new photo to all of them. And it is a little scary. I have no idea where my facial recognition is used. I am left with more questions than answers. It seems like a huge mess on the way.

How about you? Have you had the same problem? I can’t be the only one!