[access-uk] Re: airports dong face scans
- From: "Wendy Sharpe" <w.sharpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:44:12 +0100
A friend of mine always wears dark glasses because she couldn't cope with an
artificial eye as a child, so one of her sockets is empty. She applied for
a new passport recently and, as before, had the photos taken with her
glasses on. The form was returned, and she was asked to have the photos
re-taken without her glasses. That must be a lovely sight for the airport
staff.
Wendy
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Jackie Cairns
Sent: 25 April 2008 15:37
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: airports dong face scans
Hahahahahaha. Sorry, but I can't disguise my amusement. What with my
artificial eyes, and the metal in my left ankle and back, I'd give anyone
with a scanner the run-around at an airport no matter what the recognition
techniques are.
Jackie
Email: cairnsplace@xxxxxxx
Skype Name: Cairnsplace
----- Original Message -----
From: "Derek Hornby" <derek.hornby_uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Access-Uk@Freelists. Org" <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 1:53 PM
Subject: [access-uk] airports dong face scans
> Hi all
> The following wa sin The Guardian today, 25 ~~April 2008
>
> Does anyo0ne know if this face scan system is likely to have
> problems for the blind.
> I mean wold we need to look in a certain direction, and what aboujt eyes
> what if one has no eyes?
>
> Face scans for air passengers to begin in UK this summer:
> Officials say automatic screening more accurate than checks by humans:
> Owen Bowcott
>
> Airline passengers are to be screened using automated facial
> recognition technology rather than identity checks by passport
> officers, in an attempt to improve security and help ease
> congestion at airports, the Guardian can reveal.
>
> From this summer, unmanned clearance gates will be phased in to
> scan passengers' faces and match the image to the record held on
> the computer chip in their biometric passports.
>
> Border security officials believe the machines can do a better job
> of screening passports and preventing identity fraud than humans.
> The first pilot project will be open to UK and EU citizens
> holding new biometric passports.
>
> But there are concerns that passengers will react badly to being
> rejected by an automated gate. In order to ensure that no one on
> a police watch list is incorrectly let through the gates, 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.
>
> Those rejected may be redirected into passport queues staffed by
> control officers, or officers may be authorised to override
> automatic gates following additional checks.
>
> Ministers are eager to set up the first trials in time for the
> summer holiday rush, but they have not yet decided how many
> airports will take part in the first phase of the programme. If
> successful, it will be extended to all UK airports.
>
> The automated passport clearance gates will introduce the new
> security technology to the UK mass market for the first time and
> may transform the public's experience of airports.
>
> Existing biometric, fast-track travel schemes - iris and miSense -
> are already operating at several UK airports. However, they have
> been aimed at business travellers who are enrolled in advance.
>
> The rejection rate in the trials of iris recognition, which uses
> the unique images of the iris in each traveller's eye, is between
> 3% and 5%, although some of these were passengers who had not
> been previously enrolled in the scheme and jumped queues.
>
> Plans for the summer trials emerged at a conference in London this
> week which brought together the international biometrics
> industry, senior civil servants involved in border control, and
> police technology experts.
>
> At one session Gary Murphy, the head of operational design and
> development for the UK Border Agency, explained: "We are planning
> a trial of facial recognition gates to see if they deliver our
> requirements. 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.
>
> "There are also internal staff issues. Will they see it as a
> threat to their jobs or an opportunity for more interesting work?
> We want to divert their work to areas where their skills can best
> be used." Some conference participants feared that passengers
> would only be fast-tracked forward to the next queue or
> bottleneck in the UK's overcrowded airport network.
>
> The automated gates will enhance the government's progress towards
> establishing a comprehensive Advance Passenger Information (API)
> security system that will eventually enable flight details and
> identities of all passengers to be checked against a security
> watch list before they take off.
>
> At present, what is also known as Project Semaphore, the first
> stage in the government's e-borders programme, monitors 30m
> passenger movements a year through the UK. By December 2009, API
> will be tracking 60% of all passengers and crew movements. The
> Home Office aim is that by December 2010 the system will be
> monitoring 95% of passenger movements. Total coverage is not
> expected to be achieved until 2014 after similar checks have been
> introduced for travel on "small yachts and private flights".
>
> So far around 8m to 10m new UK bio metric passports, containing a
> computer chip holding the carrier's facial details, have been
> issued since they were introduced in 2006. The last non-biometric
> passports will no longer be valid after 2016.
>
> Home Office minister Liam Byrne said last night: "Britain's border
> security is now among the toughest in the world and tougher
> checks do take time, but we don't want long waits. So the UK
> Borders Agency will soon be testing new automatic gates for
> British and European Economic Area [EEA] citizens. We will test
> them this year and if they work put them at all key ports [and
> airports]."
>
> The EEA includes all EU states as well as Norway, Switzerland and
> Iceland.
>
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