The US Department of Homeland Security has carried out trials to test whether facial recognition algorithms could correctly identify masked individuals.

Masks can fool facial recognition systems, but the algorithms are learning fast A new government report reviewed how nearly 100 facial recognition systems are faring in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Patrick Grother, a computer scientist who leads NIST’s facial-recognition testing program, says his group is preparing tests to quantify how accurately algorithms identify people wearing masks.