[IP] 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,
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EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
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