Airport check-ins based on your iris
Starting in October at London's Heathrow Airport, new iris recognition technology will enable selected passengers to look into a video camera at the passport control checkpoint and have their identity verified within seconds. The Heathrow program will be the first large-scale passenger processing trial in the world to rely entirely on biometric identification.
PASSENGERS TAKING PART in the Heathrow trial will be pre-cleared by the U.K. Immigration Service. Passengers will still be required to carry passports but their permission to enter the U.K. will be based on the real-time verification of their iris pattern. The program is aimed at expediting passenger arrivals and reducing operating costs.
Up to 2,000 North American citizens - customers of Virgin Atlantic and British Airways who travel frequently to the United Kingdom - will be able to enroll in the trial.
The so-called ?one-stop? identification process uses iris-recognition technology to identify passengers at all steps in the travel process. Powerful software translates the iris pattern into a frequent-flier number or passport number, and then communicates this with airport and airline computers to simplify check-in, baggage check, boarding and passport control.
FAST AND NON-INVASIVE
Iris recognition technology identifies people by the unique patterns of the iris - the colored ring around the pupil of the eye. It was pioneered by John Daugman, of Cambridge University.
The system being used at Heathrow is called JetStream Passenger Processing
and was developed by McLean, Va.-based EyeTicket Corp., in partnership with Simplifying Passenger Travel, an interest group of the International Air Transport Association. The association, formed to develop ?one-stop? passenger processing for airlines and airports, includes more than 40 major airports, airlines, immigration authorities, and technology suppliers around the world, including British Airways, United Kingdom Immigration Service and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
EyeTicket demonstrated the system at the International Air Transport Association?s World Air Transport Summit in Madrid this month.
?I expect we will see other trials launched at major airports throughout the world,? Thomas Windmuller, director of Simplifying Passenger Travel, said in a statement.
