SkyBlueFlux
Well-Known Member
It's an often overlooked thing with new technologies. They set the e-gates up to work for the average person but if you have very dark or very light skin, the lighting and face detection just doesn't work. It's been a problem with phone cameras for a long time as well, which is why you might have seen Google heavily advertising their new Pixel can now actually take photos of black people that aren't over or under-exposed. It is getting better - my wife actually got through the gate for the first time in her life last time (bear in mind she's probably attempted maybe 15-20 times previously and it hasn't worked).
The government have had a similar issue with their passport photo-checking service which auto-rejects people with darker skin because it can't recognise their features: https://www.newscientist.com/articl...iased-passport-tool-despite-available-update/
These are obviously technological challenges based on designing technologies for broad populations rather than some form of mendacious racism, but it is a good example of the kind of annoying barrier that minorities face in daily life that I personally would have never even thought about.
