Gait Recognition in Interaction with Queer Citizens

Abstract

Facial recognition has experienced an ethical reckoning in academia and popular media for its inaccuracy and embedded bias, particularly with regard to its treatment of gender minorities. Failures in sampling and overlooked flaws have made the in-use software unusable for many queer people. Yet, similar discourse is lacking for gait recognition––automated identification based on an individual’s movement. With gait recognition software already capable of performing gender classification and already deployed in some sites, how might members of the LGBTQ community, who use motion as a social indicator, be affected by the application of such technology? In tandem, how does mechanized gait recognition rely on pre-existing assumptions about queer people?  This paper seeks to build on ethical analysis of facial recognition software by looking at the harms of gait recognition in pre-computerized contexts, inspecting the assumptions used in gait tech development, and evaluating current applications of the technology.