Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

Biometrics may ease airport headaches

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Within the next few years, waiting in long lines at airports may not be a problem. Biometrics and other high-tech identification may expedite passenger travel across the globe, according to ZDNet Asia.

Matthew Finn, director of government and security for airline industry IT body Sita, says trusted travelers will use automated gates that will enable them quick passage. Sita is involved in a number of these programs including miSense, a biometric security trial at Heathrow Airport.


The security systems will rely on e-passports, or other ID documents that contain fingerprints or iris scans as well as demographic information.

“The U.K. government is absolutely committed to simplifying passenger travel,” Finn says in the article. “Today you will stand in lines several times at a place like Heathrow; it really is repetitive checks and all of that can be integrated. By 2015 the majority of people arriving in and departing from the United Kingdom will hold an international standardized travel document that contains biometrics.”

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Vision-Box, a biometrics solutions provider, has come out with an automatic border control e-gate that supports multimodal biometric authentication.

This new e-gate is a thin system that contains vb i-match, a single sourced design that is modular and flexible and can be adapted to business requirements and infrastructure constraints that would otherwise disrupt passenger flow. It has the ability to cope with industry standards such as ICAO. The e-gate supports iris, fingerprint and facial biometrics.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Australia’s Attorney General and Ministry of Defense are exploring ways to grant reciprocation for fast-tracking each other’s citizens through customs checks in both countries, reports Australian Business Traveller.

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New passport-reading and biometrics technology installed at Dubai International Airport is catching increasing numbers of people who attempt to enter the country with fake identity documents, reports the Gulf News.

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In an effort to streamline passenger security, Jakarta, Indonesia’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport has opened the country’s first biometric immigration gate.

Fingerprint biometric identification provider BIO-key International, Inc. and Oakwell Engineering Limited partnered to create the new gate, designed for use by passengers with electronic passports. Passengers submit their e-passports and authenticate with a fingerprint.

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Travelers into Dubai International Airport will have the option of using an automated border crossing checkpoint, according to GulfNews.com.

Initially deployed in Terminal three, but expected to be rolled out throughout the airport, the system will read the passports and check the facial image and iris against a watch list. The entire process takes about 15 seconds.

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Massachusetts-based Aware Inc. has announced it’s won three contracts to provide biometrics software and services for three large-scale border management systems in Europe, the Middle East and North America.

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