NZ passport system tells Asian man to open eyes in photo

A 22-year-old Asian man's photograph for a New Zealand passport was rejected after an automated system objected to the image he uploaded saying it does not meet its criteria as his eyes were closed.
Richard Lee was applying for a passport online when the system objected to the image he uploaded.
"The photo you want to upload does not meet our criteria because: subject eyes are closed," it said.
But Lee, who is of Asian descent, had his eyes open.
"I fell off my chair laughing. Like, I know I have small eyes and I have no problem with it. But the fact that a computer can notice as well, that's just hilarious," Lee said.

"I tried a few different ones and no luck," he was quoted as saying by news.Com.Au.

"They said it was the shadow in my eyes and the uneven lighting on the face makes it hard for the software to process," he said.
It was not racism he suggested. "It was a robot. No hard feelings."
A New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs spokesman denied their system discriminated against "any specific set of individuals."
He added that up to 20 per cent of photos submitted online are rejected for a variety of reasons -- most commonly shadows on the face which the software interprets as closed eyes.

"That was the generic error message sent in this case," Internal Affairs spokesman Steve Corbett said. "We... Note that in this case another photo was submitted on the same day and the individual was issued a New Zealand passport."
The spokesman said the department had every confidence in the systems and did not believe they discriminated against any specific individuals.
Lee, currently attending university in Melbourne in Australia eventually gave up and went to a local post office to get some passport photos taken.
"Fortunately one of those worked," he said.
This is not the first time an automated system has had problem with non-white faces.

Born in Taiwan but brought up in New Zealand, he was trying to renew his passport so he could return to Australia after a Christmas break in New Zealand.
The department issues around 25,000 online applications a month and more than half of eligible adult renewals are done digitally.