And so it begins

[ciphergoth]

adjectivemarcus pointed out this news article to me:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1808000/1808187.stm

Heathrow Airport is to test a new hi-tech identity system which examines a passenger's eye, rather than their passport as they go through immigration control.

Heathrow is the first UK airport to carry out a large-scale trial of the iris recognition technology.

The aim is to speed up the movement of passengers through the terminal.

A total of 2,000 passengers who frequently fly from North America to Heathrow on Virgin and British Airways flights are taking part in the five-month trial.

I've written about this before: see

http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?itemid=11363679
http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?itemid=11402972

If you enjoyed those, you might also enjoy:

http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?itemid=11755499
http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?itemid=11773811
http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?itemid=11848043

Comments

[entropic-om.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't barcodes be oh-so-more effective?

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

The idea is that next to the usual queues for passport control, there's a third queue for iris-coded passengers. Those passengers simply walk up to the gate, show their eye to the camera, and the gate opens for them. This would be much faster than the usual passport control, but obviously substituting barcodes would make impersonation much easier.

They may never make iris coding compulsory for flight, but if they can promise much greater convenience in return then it may only be a few "goats" and protesters who have to do things the slow way.

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

It may only be a few "goats" and protesters who have to do things the slow way.

Who of course, will receive equally rapid and courteous treatment as a respect of their right to choose, and won't be subjected to any extra delays or searches.
No, really.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression a version of this already exists in some US airports. You get a card with your photo on it which also has sorted on it info about your finger print. You stick it in a slot and put your finger against a reader and you're through. The photo was in case the machine was down but you generally needed a passport anyway for the airport at the other end. It was sold to people on convenience, I believe - I heard about it from someone who works in the airline industry so does a hell of a lot of traveling.

I'll look and see if I can find some references cause it obviously never really caught on and it would be interesting to know why.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

In a recent Innovations catalogue, they were selling a mouse with a fingerprint identifier, so you could 'lock' your terminal and make it 'impossible to hack'. I believe they worked the word 'encryption' into there at some point too. Bollocks.

[zz]

but if lots of people do the iris thing, the queues for the slow way will be a lot shorter.. :)