Face scans for air passengers to begin in UK this summer

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Brian Randell [Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk]
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 8:05 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: Face scans for air passengers to begin in UK this summer

Hi Dave:

You might want this front page leading article from today's (UK)
Guardian for IP.

cheers

Brian


> Face scans for air passengers to begin in UK this summer
>
> Officials say automatic screening more accurate than checks by humans
>
>     * Owen Bowcott
>     * The Guardian,
>     * Friday April 25 2008
>
> This article appeared in the Guardian on Friday April 25 2008 on p1
> of the Top stories section. It was last updated at 01:00 on April 25
> 2008.
>
> A face recognition system
>
> A face recognition system will scan faces and match them to
> biometric chips on passports.
>
> Airline passengers are to be screened with facial recognition
> technology rather than checks by passport officers, in an attempt to
> improve security and ease congestion, the Guardian can reveal.
>
> From summer, unmanned clearance gates will be phased in to scan
> passengers' faces and match the image to the record on the computer
> chip in their biometric passports.
>
> Border security officials believe the machines can do a better job
> than humans of screening passports and preventing identity fraud.
> The pilot project will be open to UK and EU citizens holding new
> biometric passports.
>
> But there is concern that passengers will react badly to being
> rejected by an automated gate. To ensure no one on a police watch
> list is incorrectly let through, the technology will err on the side
> of caution and is likely to generate a small number of "false
> negatives" - innocent passengers rejected because the machines
> cannot match their appearance to the records.
>
> They may be redirected into conventional passport queues, or
> officers may be authorised to override automatic gates following
> additional checks.
>
> Ministers are eager to set up trials in time for the summer holiday
> rush, but have yet to decide how many airports will take part. If
> successful, the technology will be extended to all UK airports.
>
> <snip>
>
> Full story at:
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/25/theairlineindustry.transport

--
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell

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