Florida airport to begin scanning faces of international passengers

Karima Kouidri

Orlando International Airport will employ face scanners for passengers

on arriving and departing international flights, a move that airport authorities claim will speed up customs, while privacy advocates worry about the lack of formal rules in place for the data from the scans.

                                                                                      David J.Phillip/ ap

Florida’s busiest airport will be the first in the nation to require a face scan of passengers on all arriving and departing international flights, officials said Thursday, a move that pleases airport executives but worries privacy advocates.

Officials at Orlando International Airport said the expansion of face scans would speed up the time it takes for passengers to go through customs.

“It’s almost like Christmas in June for me,” said Phil Brown, chief executive of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority. “The process of going into and out of Orlando is going to be greatly enhanced.”

But some privacy advocates say there are no formal rules in place for handling data gleaned from the scans, nor formal guidelines on what should happen if a passenger is wrongly prevented from boarding.

Airports in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, and Washington already use face scans for some departing international flights, but they don’t involve all international flights at the airports as the program’s expansion in Orlando would.

The image from the face scan is compared to a Department of Homeland Security biometric database that has passport images of people who should be on the flight in order to verify the traveler’s identity. The images are held in the database for 14 days before being deleted, said John Wagner, an official with US Customs and Border Protection.

The face scan expansion is costing the Orlando airport authority $4 million. The program should be rolled out at other airports in other US cities in the next year, Mr. Wagner said.

“We’re comparing you against a photograph you’ve given the US government for the purposes of travel,” Wagner said. “You know your picture is being taken. You’re standing in front of a camera. There’s nothing subversive about this, and we’re only comparing you against your passport photo.”

US citizens at these airports can opt out, but the agency “doesn’t seem to be doing an adequate job letting Americans know they can opt out,” said Harrison Rudolph, an associate at the Center on Privacy & Technology at the Georgetown University Law Center.

The Orlando announcement marks a step up in the scope of the face scan program, Mr. Rudolph said.

“We’re not talking about one gate,” he said. “We’re talking about every international departure gate, which is a huge expansion of the number of people who will be scanned. Errors tend to go up as uses go up.”

Orlando International Airport had about 6 million international passengers in the past year. Face scans for arrivals and departures should be fully in place by the end of the year, although passengers landing at Orlando International Airport currently undergo them upon arriving. Passengers who had their photos taken Thursday at the Orlando airport took it in stride.

“It was fine, efficient, very fast,” said Katrina Poulsen, a Denmark resident who arrived in Orlando on a flight from London.

Andrea Nabarria, who arrived on the same flight, said he understands the concerns about privacy but that passengers may have to give up something in exchange for beefed up security.

“At least that’s what we’re told,” said Mr. Nabarria, an Italian who is a resident of Denmark.

Rudolph said he has concerns about the face scans’ accuracy since some research shows they are less accurate with racial minorities, women, and children. Researchers say this is because photos used to train the face-scanning software underrepresent minorities, women, and young people.

Wagner said the agency hasn’t seen discrepancies based on race or gender using face scans at the other airports.

Two US senators last month sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, which is home to the border protection agency, urging that formal rules be implemented before the program is expanded.

“It will also ensure a full vetting of this potentially sweeping program that could impact every American leaving the country by the airport,” said the letter from US Sens. Ed Markey (D) of Mass. and Mike Lee (R) of Utah.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. 

source : cs.monitor

Vistara’s ‘RADA’ robot to assist and address customers at airports

Karima Kouidri

Vistara has launched a new AI-based robot that is aimed at assisting customers at airports,

along with addressing their queries. The ‘RADA’ robot will initially be placed at the company’s Signature Lounge at Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3 from July 5, 2018, for helping customers in the lounge. The robot’s functionality is touted to be improved over time with new features, after taking user feedback.

According to the company, the robot uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and can assist customers, address their queries and even entertain them.

“During its initial stage, RADA will be placed at Vistara’s Signature Lounge at Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3 from July 5 to assist customers using the lounge before they board their flights,” the airline said in a statement.

“‘RADA’ will be further developed over a period of time in terms of functionality and features for future use cases, after gauging customer feedback.”

At present, the robot can scan boarding passes and further provide information on the terminal, departure gates, weather conditions of destination city, real time flight status as well as information about Vistara’s products and services.

“It greets customers and interacts with them using basic hand movements, and is capable of moving around in the lounge on predefined pathways,” the statement said.

“Additionally, it can engage with kids and adults alike by playing games and other multimedia content such as songs and videos.”

Face scans to be required for international travelers at Orlando airport

Karima Kouidri

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida’s busiest airport

is becoming the first in the nation to require a face scan of passengers on all arriving and departing international flights, including U.S. citizens, according to officials there.
The expected announcement Thursday at Orlando International Airport alarms some privacy advocates who say there are no formal rules in place for handling data gleaned from the scans, nor formal guidelines on what should happen if a passenger is wrongly prevented from boarding.
Airports in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Washington already use face scans for some departing international flights, but they don’t involve all international travelers at the airports like the program’s expansion in Orlando would. The image from the face scan is compared to a Department of Homeland Security biometric database that has images of people who should be on the flight, in order to verify the traveler’s identity.
U.S. citizens at these airports can opt out, but the agency “doesn’t seem to be doing an adequate job letting Americans know they can opt out,” said Harrison Rudolph, an associate at the Center on Privacy & Technology at the Georgetown University Law Center.
U.S. citizens at the Orlando airport will be able to opt out just like at the other airports if they don’t want to provide their photograph, Jennifer Gabris, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in an email. However, a notice about a possible rule change for the program states that “U.S. citizens may be required to provide photographs upon entering or departing the United States.”
The Orlando announcement marks a step up in the scope of the face scan program, Rudolph said.
“We’re not talking about one gate,” he said. “We’re talking about every international departure gate, which is a huge expansion of the number of people who will be scanned. Errors tend to go up as uses go up.”

Orlando International Airport had about 6 million international passengers in the past year.

Rudolph said he has concerns about the face scans’ accuracy, since some research shows they are less accurate with racial minorities, women and children. Researchers say this is because photos used to train the face-scanning software underrepresent minorities, women and young people.

Two U.S. senators last month sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, which is home to the border protection agency, urging that formal rules be implemented before the program is expanded.

“It will also ensure a full vetting of this potentially sweeping program that could impact every American leaving the country by airport,” said the letter from U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. and U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

source : nypost

wheelAIR trial at Edinburgh Airport to improve users’ airport experiences

Karima Kouidri

OmniServ, an airline and airport assistance services provider, is trialling the innovative wheelAIR cooling backrest cushion at Edinburgh Airport as part of its continued efforts to improve the experience for passengers requiring special assistance at UK airports.

For the trial, which launched on 5th June, wheelAIR teamed up with mobility retailer FastAid Products – part of the John Preston Group – who provided an active lightweight wheelchair to enable customers to try the wheelAIR cushions, giving OmniServ the opportunity to gain feedback from passengers.

Designed in 2015 by Corien Staels, wheelAIR was designed with the input of Paralympic athletes and wheelchair manufacturers. It uses inbuilt fan technology to cool the back and reduce the user’s core temperature by taking away excess heat and moisture, allowing for better temperature control.

The cushion also offers extra support through a blend of carefully selected foams, says the company.

Samantha Berry, Head of Innovation and Regulatory Compliance at OmniServ, said: “We are constantly looking at new innovations and technologies that enhance the end-to-end passenger experience.

“We are delighted to partner with wheelAIR to trial this solution to help passengers in wheelchairs travel much more comfortably, particularly as we enter the hottest summer months.”

The news follows a move earlier this year by OmniServ, which saw the introduction of another British invention, the ProMove Sling – an easily transportable, lightweight option for lifting and transferring passengers with reduced mobility when it is not possible to deploy a powered hoist.

Ross Gilpin, Accessibility & PRM Contracts Manager at Edinburgh Airport, commented: “The passenger experience is a crucial element of our business and we have invested and focused on our special assistance service provision over the last few years so we provide that positive experience for those passengers who require extra attention and care.

“The trial of wheelAIR is another example of the innovative approach we take as we seek to improve on what the Civil Aviation Authority already regard as a good standard of service.

“We want to improve further and will look at the feedback we receive from our passengers as it is important that they help to shape our service.”

The wheelAIR is the first product of the Scottish company, Staels Design, and was developed to solve the problem of overheating in a manual wheelchair. The company’s mission is to help improve wheelchair users’ lives by designing high-quality, stylish products.

Speaking on the launch of the trial at Edinburgh Airport, Corien Staels said: “Our mission is to help improve wheelchair users’ lives by designing stylish products of the highest quality.

“We are delighted to be working with OmniServ in helping people stay comfortable whilst at the airport. Like OmniServ, we are committed to providing a high-quality experience for our customers.”

OmniServ is the International Division of ABM Aviation, a company which provides a comprehensive range of dependable solutions to more than 100 airports globally.

In 2011, John Preston joined with Fast Aid Medical & Mobility to form a healthcare group. Fast Aid, formerly known as Anderson Medical, has been trading in Scotland for over 35 years and has a showroom in Edinburgh.

source : thiis is.co.uk

Smart Technology Will Make Incheon Int’l Airport Even Smarter

Karima Kouidri
Passengers can depart from the Incheon International Airport simply through facial recognition even without a passport and a boarding pass from next year.
Passengers will be able to depart from Incheon International Airport without a passport and a boarding pass from next year at the earliest.

From next year at the earliest, passengers using Incheon International Airport

will be able to depart without their passport and boarding pass with them as the airport devices can recognize their faces when they go through the departure procedure.

In addition, they will be able to use a delivery service to have their luggage sent to and from the airport. AI chatbots will provide around-the-clock airport guide services via  Kakao Talk. From 2023, robots will provide valet parking services.

These are some of the smart services that Incheon International Airport Corporation will provide in the near future based on Industry 4.0 technology. The corporation has disclosed 100 tasks it would undertake in the next five years to introduce innovative airport services, including home check-in, biometric recognition-based immigration clearance and self-service duty-free shops.

The corporation is planning to launch the Smart Pass service early next year so that pre-registered facial recognition data can take the place of boarding passes and passports. In 2020, the pre-registration of faces will become unnecessary as the South Korean government’s biometric information service will be available.

In 2023, tunnel-type security screening will be introduced so that security screening can be completed simply by passage through a tunnel. Passengers will not have to be scanned separately from their belongings.

The home check-in service is planned to be tested from the second half of this year, when 14 AI chatbots and intelligent CCTVs for immediate security threat response are put into operation at the airport.

Self-driving vehicles will make their debut in the passenger terminal area next year, and the parking robot-based valet parking and the IoT-based duty-free shops are available from 2023.

Transport minister moots fine for airports that delay, lose passengers’ luggage

Karima Kouidri

Loke said Mavcom will be tasked with ensuring airport operators are fined accordingly if they are caught slacking off. — Shutterstock.com pic

Loke said Mavcom will be tasked with ensuring airport operators are fined accordingly if they are caught slacking off. — Shutterstock.com pic

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 —

Fines will be imposed on airports that fail to comply with some of the 21 Key Performances Indexes (KPI) and this includes the ability to handle passengers’ luggage effectively, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said.

He said the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) will be tasked with enforcing this KPI to ensure airport operators are fined accordingly if they are caught slacking off.

“Certain fines will be imposed on airports or operators. We will push for that more strictly… lots of weaknesses and complaints in baggage system — we must look into the whole thing,” he was quoted as saying in The Star.

“Airports must be held responsible, they must be proactive in preempting problems and issues, not just the baggage system,” he added.

Another issue that commonly occurs at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Loke said, included the aerotrain service breaking down occasionally.

source : SG news

IATA Adopts RFID Bag Tracking

Karima Kouidri
An airport baggage carousel
(photo via anyaberkut/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

The International Air Transport Association

has committed to developing a global plan to standardize and mandate RFID inlays in luggage tags, citing a similar tracking program adopted by Delta Airlines as the catalyst for its decision.

During the organization’s annual meeting in early June, the IATA board voted to develop a standard within one year for using RFID (radio frequency identification) to track bags, according to the RFID Journal.

The organization hopes to begin rolling out RFID bag tracking in 2020 for all airlines.

“We have got one year to develop a global deployment standard that will see IATA-standard RFID inlays in all baggage tags,” Alexandre De Juniac, IATA’s director general, said at the gathering. “During that time, we will align our partners in the value chain, especially airports.”

The publication described IATA’s decision as good news for travelers everywhere when it comes to dealing with the hassle of lost luggage.

“Delta Air Lines deserves a lot of credit for being the first airline to show that RFID could be a cost-effective solution to the problem,” added RFID Journal.

With RFID technology and the Delta mobile app, passengers are able to track the movement of their luggage and receive notifications when checked bags are safely stowed on their plane.

Delta introduced RFID bag tags in 2016 after which IATA shared results of a study finding that a global RFID solution could reduce the number of mishandled bags by up to 25 percent by 2022.

Since the launch of RFID bag tags and real-time tracking, Delta has seen a steady improvement in baggage reliability, ranking first amongst competitors seven of the past 12 months, compared to no first-place finishes in 2016, according to a statement from the airline.

RFID is a form of wireless communication that can be used to track objects equipped with an RFID-embedded chip.

Today, the vast majority of bags are checked and tracked using barcode technology, however, it’s not possible to achieve the industry’s target of 100 percent bag tracking using existing barcode technology.

An RFID-chip, or inlay, produces a continuous very low energy signal that allows bags to be tracked virtually at any point in the journey, using an RFID reader.

RFID already is used extensively in aviation, including in the tracking of high-value aircraft parts and components. Some airlines and airports individually have also introduced RFID bag tracking.

source : Travel Pulse

Airport biometrics at a potential turning point

Karima Kouidri

The challenge has always been who’s going to pay for it.

sita-biometrics-airport

There has been a steady stream of announcements regarding deployments of biometric technology in airports around the world over the past several years, but deployments in the U.S. have mostly been pilot projects. Since biometric exit was first mandated in the U.S. by Congress in 1996, and again in 2002, concerns about a variety of issues, including cost, privacy, and accuracy have largely prevented it from being utilized in the country.

The continued growth in passenger numbers which the travel industry expects is making it increasingly necessary for the aviation industry, along with U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Customs and Border Protection (CPB), to find ways to move passengers through security checkpoints and other areas during the travel process in an efficiently and securely.

The Secure Journeys Working Group brings together stakeholders including those government agencies, the aviation industry, security experts, and technology providers to increase efficiency and put forward suggestions and best practices for aviation security. The group looks at aviation issues holistically to collaborate on utilizing innovative technology to close gaps with an additional layer of security, founding member David Menzel explained to Biometric Update in an interview.

“That’s the angle we take into this with Secure Journeys working group,” Menzel says. “We ask how we can take some of these technologies that we’re already using, or we’re already exploring within the airport space, and make them another layer of security.”

In addition to his role with Secure Journeys, Menzel is also sales director of government markets for SITA, which is participating in several trials of biometric technology in airport applications. Airports have limited options for adapting to the new travel environment, Menzel points out, as their infrastructure can only be significantly improved by building new terminals, and funding is not about to be dramatically increased.

“You can’t resource your way out of this problem, you’ve got to look at technology.”

Deploying the appropriate technology is not a simple matter of identifying and procuring it, however. The processes required for deployment, including certification by TSA, can significantly slow deployment.

“At numerous conferences or events where TSA or CBP is addressing the industry, I’ve heard airport directors talk about the concerns and the frustrations about seeing new technologies get deployed in a timely basis because of the process that, for instance, TSA needs to go through to certify these technologies,” Menzel says. “That can be somewhere in the range of 18 to 24 months from the time they develop the requirements and capabilities all the way through testing at TSA TISA center before the product can hit the market.”

Menzel thinks the industry has reached a turning point, however. The pilot run by SITA and British Airways at Orlando International Airport is the first time an airport has proactively dedicated funds to deploy biometric technology, which sets a precedent, and also creates the conditions for consumers to generate more data and make different choices.

“The challenge has always been who’s going to pay for it,” Menzel explains. “Orlando stepped up.”

Other deployments in the U.S. are all trials being run by government agencies. CBP recently announced two more trials, in San Francisco and Seattle, in addition to the eight they already have operational, Menzel points out. The trials will generate the data to guide policy-making, but Menzel points out that plenty of data about the efficiency and convenience of the technology has been gathered from existing pilots, and the long-established applications of biometric processing in countries around the world.

“At some point they have to plant a flag, and say ‘we’ve done it, here are the results, here’s what’s happening.’”

Menzel reports the number of people choosing not to participate in trials of biometric technology so far have been close to zero. As statistics for public acceptance, processing times, and security assurance are collected, the TSA, CBP, and industry stakeholders will have to arrive on the same page and work together to maximize the gains from the technology and motivate adoption.

“The only way this really benefits the industry and works for everybody, airlines and airports, is for it to be seamless, end to end, curb to gate,” he argues. “Until we get to that point, some airports will take the position that they’re going to invest, some airlines will invest, but I do believe we’re starting to see momentum now with regards to a potential rollout.”

A rollout across every airport in the U.S. could take years, but is hardly the endgame. Eventually, Menzel says, government to government biometric sharing can enable travel between different regions, such as the U.S. and Europe, without a passport.

“Biometrics have been discussed for a very long time, it’s used in other industries, and I think we’re now finally seeing the aviation industry move to using biometrics throughout the process, for operational efficiency, for customer satisfaction, and for security effectiveness” he says. “It really is critical to touch all three of those areas.”

If that is achieved, then the evidence of benefit will be clear. Agreement and cooperation between agencies and industry should then be within reach, and investment will follow.

source : Biometrics update