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Facial Recognition Technology Will Check You Out At Sydney Airport

October 1, 2009 at 5:24 PM | by amandak | 0 Comments

Sydney Airport has just gotten smarter: passengers with modern e-Passports arriving in Sydney now have the option of going through SmartGate, which means they can go through passport control without speaking to a real person.

At the 12 SmartGate kiosks now operating at the airport, travelers can insert their e-Passport to be scanned, then answer the standard declaration questions on a touchscreen. After that they are issued with a ticket, take it to the exit, insert it there and then the camera scans them to check they are the person shown in the passport.

SmartGate operates on face recognition technology, and they say this is "almost" as accurate as a fingerprint. Basically, it's nearly fool-proof:

It's unlikely that SmartGate will let in the incorrect person … But you still have to have an immigration officer in a rare case when the calculations are not accurate or something has happened to the person's face.

All this should keep lining up to a minimum and free up immigration officers for the more difficult cases. At the moment, the SmartGate option is only open to Australian and New Zealand passport holders, over 18, with an e-Passport (and who haven't had anything happen to their face); expansion to other nationalities is on the cards.

Related Stories:
· Sydney Airport Opens SmartGate [The Age]
· Sydney Airport Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Andrei Railean]

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