Wrinkles could be key to buying cigarettes in Japan

      Cigarette vending machines in Japan may soon start counting wrinkles, crow's feet and skin sags to see if the customer is old enough to smoke.

      The legal age for smoking in Japan is 20 and as the country's 570,000 tobacco vending machines prepare for a July regulation requiring them to ensure buyers are not underage, a company has developed a system to identify age by studying facial features.

      By having the customer look into a digital camera attached to the machine, Fujitaka Co's system will compare facial characteristics, such as wrinkles surrounding the eyes, bone structure and skin sags, to the facial data of over 100,000 people, Hajime Yamamoto, a company spokesman said.

      "With face recognition, so long as you've got some change and you are an adult, you can buy cigarettes like before. The problem of minors borrowing (identification) cards to purchase cigarettes could be avoided as well," Yamamoto said.

      Japan's finance ministry has already given permission to an age-identifying smart card called "taspo" and a system that can read the age from driving licenses.

      Yamamoto said the system could correctly identify about 90 percent of the users, with the remaining 10 percent sent to a "grey zone" for "minors that look older, and baby-faced adults," where they would be asked to insert their driving license.

      Underage smoking has been on a decline in Japan, but a health ministry survey in 2004 showed 13 percent of boys and 4 percent of girls in the third year of high school -- those aged 17 to 18 -- smoked every day.

      日本的自动售烟机不久将能通过识别顾客面部的皱纹、鱼尾纹和皮肤松弛度来判断他们是否达到合法吸烟年龄。

      日本的法定吸烟年龄为20岁。目前日本国内的57万台自动售烟机正在为将于7月份出台的一项新规定做准备，该规定要求，自动售烟机不可向未满合法吸烟年龄的人售烟。鉴于这种情况，日本一家公司研发出了一套可通过识别顾客面部特征来确定购烟者年龄的系统。

      研发该系统的富士高株式会社的发言人山本元说，安装在自动售烟机上的数码摄像机获取顾客的面部信息后，该系统会将获取的眼角皱纹、骨骼结构和皮肤松弛部位等面部特征信息与预先存储的10万多人的面部特征数据进行对比以确定购买者年龄。

      山本元称：“有了面部识别系统后，只要您有零钱，达到合法吸烟年龄，您就能像以前一样买烟。同时这也能避免未成年人使用他人身份证买烟。”

      日本财务省已批准使用一种名为“香烟护照”的可识别年龄的智能卡，以及一套能够根据驾照识别年龄的系统。

      据山本元介绍，面部识别系统可准确辨别90%的用户，其余的10%属于“灰色地带”，这部分人由于长相显老或有张娃娃脸而难以被确认，这时自动识别装置会要求他们插入驾照。

      近年来，日本的未成年人吸烟率一直呈下降趋势，但日本卫生省于2004年开展的一项调查显示，在十七八岁的高三学生中，有13%的男生和4%的女生天天吸烟。