Wipe that smile off your face, Indiana BMV tells drivers

Now drivers in Indiana have one more excuse for hating their license photos. Effective in November, Indiana residents applying for new driver's licenses or renewing existing ones are being forbidden from smiling for the camera.

The reason is new facial recognition software being used by the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV). The software was installed as part of an effort to cut down on identity fraud and is being used to compare an applicant’s new photo with the ones on file. Previously, the comparison was done manually by BMV employees, who would look at the person applying for a license to see if he or she resembled the individual pictured in the appropriate file.

Since smiling can distort facial features measured by the facial recognition software, Indiana BMV officials want people to put on their best neutral expressions when being photographed, according to numerous media reports. They also don’t want people having hair hanging over their faces, or wearing glasses, headscarves or other accoutrements that also might distort their facial features when getting license photos taken. No word on beards and mustaches.

Indiana’s stricture on smiling for license photos, in a way, reflects the vague unease that some still have when it comes to the use of facial recognition technologies. Despite increasing sophistication over the past several years, facial recognition systems still are susceptible to errors resulting from changes in lighting, skin tone, eyeglasses, expression and the angle from which a photo is taken.

Indiana is one of 20 states to use facial recognition software in the license-issuing process, but it is reportedly the only one to have such a formal no-smile policy in place. If it’s any consolation to Hoosiers, the U.S. Department of State frowns on smiles in passport photos as well. The agency’s guidelines call for the subject's expression to be “natural,” with both eyes open, when being photographed for a passport. Its no-smile policy has been in place for over four years now.

According to an Indiana BMV spokesman who was quoted by The Times most people appear to be taking the new guidelines in stride, especially after the reason is explained to them. Or it could simply be that few people feel inclined to smile about anything in a driver’s license office in the first place.