A New Zealand man of Asian descent had his passport photo rejected by a government website when its facial recognition software registered his eyes as being closed. Richard Lee was trying to renew his passport so he could return to Australia from New Zealand after Christmas on Monday but received an awkward error message when he submitted his picture to Internal Affairs's online passport photo checker. The automated system told the 22-year-old DJ, who is currently studying Aerospace Engineering and Business Management in Melbourne, that his eyes were closed, despite them being quite obviously open. "The photo you want to upload does not meet our criteria because subjects eyes are closed," the message read. Mr Lee, who was born in Taiwan but grew up in New Zealand, contacted the Department of…