A Detroit-area skating rink is under fire for barring entry to a Black teenager after its facial recognition cameras misidentified her as a woman who

Facial Recognition Misidentifies Black Teen, Ignites Debate Over its Ethics | PetaPixel

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2021-07-15 19:00:09

A Detroit-area skating rink is under fire for barring entry to a Black teenager after its facial recognition cameras misidentified her as a woman who was banned from the property. It has further ignited debate on the ethics of using facial recognition technology in the United States.

14-year old Lamya Robinson was barred from entering Riverside Arena — located in Livonia, Michigan — after the skating rink’s facial recognition cameras determined that she was a woman who had been involved in a “brawl” there previously. She and her parents, Juliea and Derrick, say that not only is the woman in the software not their daughter, she had never been to the skating rink before and was at home when the brawl occurred.

“I was so confused because I’ve never been there,” the young girl said. “I was like, that is not me. Who is that?”

The situation touches on the ethics of using facial recognition technology and underpins an issue with how cameras have historically had difficulty properly recognizing facial features and exposing for darker skin tones. The issue of exposure has been present dating back to even film photography. Some companies, like Google, are trying to make adjustments to fix the problem, but it’s not something that has been widely addressed across the imaging industry.