
There are now dozens of criminal cases in which culprits have used hyper-realistic masks.
Some silicone masks are now so realistic they can easily be mistaken for real faces, new research suggests.
Hyper-realistic masks are made from flexible materials such as silicone and are designed to imitate real human faces – down to every last freckle, wrinkle and strand of real human hair.
In a study by the Universities of York and Kyoto, researchers asked participants to look at pairs of photographs and decide which showed a normal face and which showed a person wearing a mask.
Surprisingly, participants made the wrong call in one-in-five cases.
Everyday life
The 20% error rate observed in the study likely underestimates the extent to which people would struggle to tell an artificial face from the real thing outside of the lab, the researchers say
The researchers collected data from participants from both the UK and Japan to establish any differences according to race. When asked to choose between photographs depicting faces of a different race to the trial participant, response times were slower and selections were 5% less accurate.
Dr Rob Jenkins from the Department of Psychology at the University of York, said: “In our study participants had several advantages over ordinary people in everyday life. We made it clear to participants that their task was to identify the mask in each pair of images and we showed them example masks before the test began.
“The real-world error rate is likely to be much higher because many people may not even be aware hyper-realistic masks exist and are unlikely to be looking out for them.
“The current generation of masks is very realistic indeed with most people struggling to tell an artificial face from the real thing.”
Criminal cases
There are now dozens of criminal cases in which culprits have passed themselves off as people of a different age, race or gender, sending police investigations down the wrong path.
In one recent case, an international gang used a hyper-realistic mask to impersonate a French minister, defrauding business executives out of millions of pounds.
Dr Jet Sanders, who worked on the study while a PhD student at the University of York, said: “Failure to detect synthetic faces may have important implications for security and crime prevention as hyper-realistic masks may allow the key characteristics of a persons’ appearance to be incorrectly identified.
“These masks currently cost around £1000 each and we expect them to become more widely used as advances in manufacturing make them more affordable.”
Learn more: Some hyper-realistic masks more believable than human faces, study suggests
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Synthetic faces
[google_news title=”” keyword=”synthetic faces” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
The Latest Bing News on:
Synthetic faces
- Jackson County jail employee accused of smuggling synthetic marijuana to inmateson June 8, 2023 at 10:14 am
A case manager at the Jackson County jail is among four people accused of running a smuggling ring that supplied inmates with a type of synthetic marijuana. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced ...
- Researchers working to save lives with synthetic bloodon June 8, 2023 at 8:31 am
And unlike donated blood that has a shelf life of up to 42 days, ideally, this synthetic blood could last months, even years. It does not need to be refrigerated so it can be used not only in ...
- Drug bust results in two arrests, 450g of synthetic marijuana seizedon June 8, 2023 at 7:25 am
Police have arrested two people after a drug bust seized over 400 grams of synthetic marijuana and other various narcotics. According to the Scranton Police Department, in May, an investigation began ...
- EU antitrust watchdog raids synthetic turf companieson June 7, 2023 at 6:15 am
The European Union's antitrust watchdog said on Wednesday that it raided companies active in the synthetic turf industry in several EU countries, on concerns that they may be taking part in a cartel.
- Synthetic surfaces gaining traction at major horse racing trackson June 1, 2023 at 6:41 pm
Some North American racetracks have replaced traditional dirt with a synthetic surface made of wax-coated sand, fibers and recycled rubber ...
- Synthetic surfaces gaining traction at major horse racing trackson June 1, 2023 at 2:43 pm
It mutes hoofbeats and limits whatever kickback might fly in the faces of trailing horses. From owners to trainers to jockeys to bettors, the debate is vigorous on whether synthetic surfaces are a ...
- Synthetic surfaces gaining traction at major horse racing trackson June 1, 2023 at 2:41 pm
It mutes hoofbeats and limits whatever kickback might fly in the faces of trailing horses. From owners to trainers to jockeys to bettors, the debate is vigorous on whether synthetic surfaces are a ...
- Synthetic surfaces gaining traction at major horse racing trackson June 1, 2023 at 2:41 pm
It mutes hoofbeats and limits whatever kickback might fly in the faces of trailing horses. From owners to trainers to jockeys to bettors, the debate is vigorous on whether synthetic surfaces are a ...
- Synthetic surfaces gaining traction at major horse racing trackson June 1, 2023 at 2:13 pm
It mutes hoofbeats and limits whatever kickback might fly in the faces of trailing horses. From owners to trainers to jockeys to bettors, the debate is vigorous on whether synthetic surfaces are ...
- Synthetic surfaces gaining traction at major horse racing trackson June 1, 2023 at 2:00 pm
It mutes hoofbeats and limits whatever kickback might fly in the faces of trailing horses. From owners to trainers to jockeys to bettors, the debate is vigorous on whether synthetic surfaces are ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Hyper-realistic masks
[google_news title=”” keyword=”hyper-realistic masks” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
The Latest Bing News on:
Hyper-realistic masks
- Elections colliding with AI boomon June 9, 2023 at 6:02 pm
In total, about 500,000 video and voice deepfakes will be shared on social media sites globally in 2023, DeepMedia estimates. Cloning a voice used to cost thousans of dollars in server and AI-training ...
- Landon Barker Reveals New Hyper Realistic Tattoo of Girlfriend Charli D'Amelio's Eyeon June 2, 2023 at 9:43 pm
The photo also showed a peek at his other tattoos on the inside of his arm. Then, the 19-year-old musician shared a hyper-realistic and extremely detailed eye in the middle of his bicep, complete with ...
- Landon Barker Reveals New Hyper Realistic Tattoo of Girlfriend Charli D'Amelio's Eyeon June 2, 2023 at 7:25 pm
The photo also showed a peek at his other tattoos on the inside of his arm. Then, the 19-year-old musician shared a hyper-realistic and extremely detailed eye in the middle of his bicep, complete with ...
- Landon Barker Reveals New Hyper Realistic Tattoo of Girlfriend Charli D'Amelio's Eyeon June 2, 2023 at 6:56 pm
Then, the 19-year-old musician shared a hyper-realistic and extremely detailed eye in the middle of his bicep, complete with eyelashes, an eyebrow, and glistening specs as if it was looking into ...
- Landon Barker Reveals New Hyper Realistic Tattoo of Girlfriend Charli D'Amelio's Eyeon June 2, 2023 at 6:53 pm
Landon Barker, son of Travis Barker, sealed his love for Charli D'Amelio in ink Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Landon Barker just sealed his love for Charli D'Amelio with some ink. The son of ...
- Landon Barker Reveals New Hyper Realistic Tattoo of Girlfriend Charli D'Amelio's Eyeon June 2, 2023 at 6:51 pm
The photo also showed a peek at his other tattoos on the inside of his arm. Then, the 19-year-old musician shared a hyper-realistic and extremely detailed eye in the middle of his bicep, complete with ...
- Landon Barker Reveals New Hyper Realistic Tattoo of Girlfriend Charli D'Amelio's Eyeon June 2, 2023 at 6:48 pm
The photo also showed a peek at his other tattoos on the inside of his arm. Then, the 19-year-old musician shared a hyper-realistic and extremely detailed eye in the middle of his bicep, complete with ...
- Landon Barker Reveals New Hyper Realistic Tattoo of Girlfriend Charli D'Amelio's Eyeon June 2, 2023 at 6:46 pm
The photo also showed a peek at his other tattoos on the inside of his arm. Then, the 19-year-old musician shared a hyper-realistic and extremely detailed eye in the middle of his bicep, complete with ...
- World’s first ultra-realistic robot artist makes vases and cutlery with 3D printeron June 1, 2023 at 4:22 pm
The hyper-realistic robot, which can smile, blink and move its shoulders, can be heard saying "My name is Ameca" before spelling out her name. "Have I won the spelling bee?" she jokes. One of the ...
- ‘Is It Cake, Too?’ Is 'Completely Insane' Thanks to Realistic Desserts, Chrishell Stause as Judge and Moreon June 1, 2023 at 9:59 am
Is that a toilet or is it cake? Netflix is launching a second season of its hyper-realistic baking competition, Is It Cake, Too?, which starts streaming on June 30. PEOPLE has an exclusive first ...