Heads up Texas drivers, today at the DMV I had to take off my glasses for my new picture.

[texanwitch]

I have been wearing glasses since I was 10 years so I was surprised that I had to take off my glasses for the picture.

I asked why and the woman behind the counter said so we can see you face.

Now, people who wear glasses look different when you take off your glasses.

So the picture on the drivers license will look different from your normal face if you have on glasses.

This is very stupid.

Smells of Homeland Security nonense to me.

[Taverner]

1. Facial regocnition technology

The glasses add a possibly altering element

Remove the glasses, and you can identify individuals through facial recognition technology even if they are wearing glasses.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

2. Now you can drive without your glasses

Enjoy!

[texanwitch]

3. I really need my glasses.

I would be a danger on the road without them.

It is still on my paper license that I need to wear glasses.

If I had known this I would have lived with my terrible picture taken last year.

They were doing this to everybody.

[NMDemDist2]

4. that's hilarious, they MADE me put on glasses in NM

when I moved here and went for my license all I had with me were my (prescription) sunglasses.

they pulled this horrible set of unisex 80's metal frames out of a drawer and made me wear them for the picture

:rofl:

[texanwitch]

5. Ok, you win.

Nothing worse then a bad pair of glasses.

When I was little kid I had wear those really ugly cat eye glasses.

There wasn't any other style like now.

[NMDemDist2]

6. they looked like this

and mind you, I'm a 5'3 woman in my 50s


argh!!!

[texanwitch]

7. Damn.

They look like men's frames to me.

Why couldn't they have box of frames to pick from, some of them for women.

[NMDemDist2]

8. OK, want to hear the funniest part?

the sunglasses I was wearing that day were almost identical. I bought the frames 25 years ago and when I got a new distance prescription, I figured they'd make good sunglass frames

and they did, lasted over 25 years but were my 'knock around' pair and I was in the middle of unpacking and stuff and wasn't using my 'good' sunglasses

:hide:

[texanwitch]

9. Well, it is just a picture.

What am I saying, I couldn't stand the picture from last November.

I had this strange hair look going.

Now I will have a strange face look going.

I know the picture will be bad, they always are.

I learned from early voting that most people have bad driver license pictures.

[mykpart]

10. Clark Kent will be in BIG trouble

if he moves to Texas! How will he continue to fight for truth, justice, and the American way if his secret identity is discovered?

[texanwitch]

12. I never understood how those glasses hid Superman's identity.

Old Clark did take them off from time to time.

I think it would be to hot for Superman in Texas, we have really hot summers.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. My dear texanwitch!

The same thing happened to me in CA a couple of years ago, when I needed a new license...NO glasses!

I look awful.

I never am without my glasses either...

It sucks, IMHO...

x(

[texanwitch]

13. It must be some homeland security thing going on.

I bet there is some computer software used to check pictures.

Glasses might get in the way.

That is what I think.

I rather have my old picture back now.

It was good for 4 years.

[jobycom]

14. It's a constipiracy, Man!!

First they came for those with glasses. Then they came for those without glasses, only they didn't catch many of them because they couldn't see them because they had taken their glasses off...

Egads, it's like George Orwell meets Stanley Kubrick!!

[texanwitch]

15. Ok,

Give me a good reason why they would want pictues of people without glasses.

Glasses would get in the way a computer reading people faces.

I put nothing past our government, not after Bush.

Why now.

We still have the same FBI and CIA running around.

I am real serious about this.

I am wearing glasses in the photo I just replaced and in all the other old license photos,

[jobycom]

16. Because it's easy for a cop to say "Could you remove your glasses?"

if he has a question about whether it's you in the picture, and it's difficult for him or her to dig out a set of frames that match the ones you have on in case you aren't wearing the ones you were pictured in. And because it's easy for people to disquise their appearance by wearing glasses. And because the general trend is towards standardization--eliminating variables--and not everyone wears glasses.

As for face recognition software, I don't get your concern. You think wearing glasses is going to foil the FBI and CIA? You have less privacy because they make you take your glasses off? Face recognition software can't factor out glasses? I don't get it. Yeah, we are under too much surveillance, but glasses or no glasses in a license photo doesn't make one witt of difference.

This is just some silly beauracratic shift in policy. Next week they will require that all background screens by a subtle shade of fuschia. Yeah, they may even have some nefarious intention for it, but this is still the US government. They couldn't find the Superdome after Katrina, they couldn't find hijacked 747s on 9-11, they won't be able to find you any easier just because you took a picture without glasses.

And my first post was just being silly, because this is the Lounge. If I'm not in GD, I don't give a good GD about any topic besides Rush. Who suck. BTW.

[texanwitch]

17. I agree with you about Rush.

I don't trust my government anymore, not even with a new president who is a good man and I voted for him.

We had police surveillance in our anti-war groups here.

I know my picture was taken many times.

The point of my post was to warn my fellow Texans.

I would have never gone today I would have known about this new picture policy.

I think it just creepy.

Now you can't get a license without your SS card.

[jobycom]

21. That's an immigration thing.

Texas is still riled up about illegal immigration. It's too easy for people to get multiple drivers licenses off of one phony SS card, by claiming the old license was lost. People pass licenses around with the same name, and disguise the picture as much as they can, so it's harder for a cop or even an employer to say that the person in the photo isn't the person showing the license. They might even think it helps against stolen identity. Identity is big business now.

This is nothing new, Texas is always coming up with new forms of licenses they believe will be harder to use illegally. They made the licenses harder to alter to prevent underage drinking, then they turned underage licenses sideways, and print "UNder 21" on them. It's just Texas, it's a silly state. It may not be pleasant, but it's no more reason than any other to get angry about or react against.

As for the anti-war group surveillance, they were trying to find the person who burned the Governor's Mansion, so they infiltrated a lot of groups, both parties. Since the Democrats were holding a convention in town that day, cops suspect it might have been an angry Democrat. Heck, I suspect that, though I hope it's not true. That's why they were trying to get activist liberals talking about Molotov Cocktails. They did the same thing to the other side after the OKC bombing, when conservative activist groups, especially pro-gun and anti-government groups, were infiltrated. It's nothing new.

[Gormy Cuss]

23. Making the photos ready for facial recognition technology.

It's a stipulation of REAL ID. I'll bet you feel safer already. :sarcasm:

If citizens would COMPLAIN and do so loudly, maybe we can overturn the thinly disguised national ID program authorized under REAL ID.

[Skittles]

18. you want I should kick some DMV ass, texanwitch?

they need it anyway

[Left Is Write]

19. I have never worn my glasses for my driver's livence picture.

My choice.

I really do not think I look fundamentally different without my glasses than I do with. Unless the cop is Lois Lane, I think I'll be recognizable.

[LynneSin]

20. Pennsylvania & Delaware always makes you take off your glasses

You Texans need to catch up with the program

[Iggo]

22. Yep.

Happens every time I get my picture took at the DMV.

Someone says smile. I say no. They ask why.

I say because if I gotta show my ID, I won't be smiling.

[ashling]

24. With and without picture recquired

:)

[ceile]

25. DMV?

I have never called hell, I mean DPS the DMV. Did you "northern-ize" your post for our Yankee brethren? ;)

[KamaAina]

26. Would've made a great King of the Hill episode

Hank: "Why in God's name are you making me take off my glasses?"

Peggy: "But if I take off my glasses, how will people know I was once the Texas state Boggle champion?"

Dale: "I will not take off my glasses! It's a government conspiracy, I tell you! They're going to burn their new mind control laser directly into my retinas!"

[plantwomyn]

27. If it smells like Homeland Security

it is.
Most states are using the facial recognition software now. I was at Indiana BMV this week and it took 5 minutes to get one woman's pic. They had her moving her head around like a bobble head doll. They finally figured out that it was her hoop ear rings. Your face has to be square to the camera, and fit into a "grid".
My question is whether the facial recognition software can recognize you with glasses on. :rofl:

[meegbear]

28. Massachusetts does it too ...

breathe.