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| Sunday, May 17, 04:10:40am | [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7, 8, 9, 10 ] |
| Subject: Swedish airport tests biometrics | |
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Author: SEPTEMBER 12, 2003 |
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Date Posted: Saturday, September 13, 12:03:54am http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7242458^15322^^nbv^,00.html Swedish airport tests biometrics Matt Moore SEPTEMBER 12, 2003 HOPING to simplify passenger arrivals and departures and improve security, Scandinavian Airlines Systems said it will test using biometric technology at an airport in northern Sweden. Biometric systems reduce patterns in a person's fingerprints, irises, faces, voices or other characteristics to mathematical algorithms that can be stored on a chip or machine-readable strip. When arriving travelers put their fingers into biometric scanners or stand in front of face-recognition cameras, a computer will check whether the patterns it detects match the ones the passengers gave when they were first scanned. The system also will check whether visitors appear on watch lists of suspected terrorists or immigration violators. "Our challenge is therefore to raise the security level, while also simplifying the travel process," said Charlotte Rosengren-Edgren, head of product innovation at SAS. "Biometry offers us this possibility. Now we are going to test the technology in practice." Starting in November, SAS frequent flyers at Umeaa Airport, 645 kilometers north of the capital, Stockholm, will pass through a turnstile at the gate and scan their fingerprints. ADVERTISEMENT A few weeks later, passengers at a yet-to-be determined airport in Scandinavia will have their irises scanned. "We previously tested biometry internally using fingerprints, but scanning the iris is new for us," Ms Rosengren-Edgren said. The tests will last six months and will use SAS smart cards, which have passengers' fingerprint and iris images already stored. At the gate, the card is read without requiring contact and then the passenger puts his or her finger on - or eye in front of - a scanner. Identity is verified by a comparison of the fingerprint/iris and the card content. After the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, interest surged in biometrics as a security tool. Last year, the US Congress mandated that biometrics be added to a new automated entry and exit system for travelers known as US-VISIT. Scandinavian Airlines flies to more than 90 destinations worldwide from bases in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo. The airline group said it flew 2.8 million passengers last month, compared with 3 million passengers in August 2002. The Associated Press [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |