Travel News

Airport face-scan tests to begin this summer

New technology that will scan the faces of people passing through airport security checkpoints is set to be tested in the UK this year, according to reports.

It has been suggested that the system, which compares a scanned image to a record on a computer chip stored in biometric passports, will be more reliable than checks carried out by airport workers.

According to information acquired by the Guardian, the pilot project will involve UK and EU citizens in possession of a biometric passport.

One of the potential problems of the technology could be a high number of rejections owing to the strict parameters of the image-checking process, which could lead to passengers having to join a regular passport queue or a security official manually overriding the system.

Speaking at a biometrics industry conference, Gary Murphy, head of operational design and development for the UK Border Agency, said: "We think a machine can do a better job [than manned passport inspections].

"What will the public reaction be? Will they use it? We need to test and see how people react and how they deal with rejection. We hope to get the trial up and running by the summer."

Phil Booth of the No2Id campaign told the Guardian that the plans are "extremely optimistic" and said that the level of facial recognition technology required is "just not there".

Biometric technology, such as iris-scan systems, is currently in use at some UK airports but is mainly used by business passengers who enrol in advance to reduce their journey time.

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