DMVs: Please Stop Smiling

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted May 26, 2009 5:12 PM CDT
DMVs: Please Stop Smiling
An enhanced Vermont driver's license.   (AP Photo)

Four states are demanding that motorists stop saying cheese when they get their driver's license photo, and more may follow suit, reports USA Today. It's not the grinch patrol. Smiles can interfere with technology used to make sure people don't apply for illegal licenses, say officials in Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada, and Virginia. Not all states buy it. “People can smile here in Pennsylvania,” said an official there.

The "neutral facial expressions" are necessary because of software used to compare new license photos with ones already taken. If the same photo shows up on different applications, red flags go up. But the software often fails to detect a match if the same person is grinning in one photo and serious in another.
(More driver's license stories.)

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