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

Rajendra Pawar and Sudhir Singh of NIIT Technologies point the way for a better airport experience for travellers.

Rajendra Pawar and Sudhir Singh of NIIT Technologies point the way for a better airport experience for travellers

Now, New York’s LaGuardia Airport could have the answer. Meet Jabbrrbox.

Passengers can rent these windowed booths for $30 an hour.

There, they can use Wi-Fi, USB charging, and audio speakers in a private space.

The founder got the idea when he found himself unable make a private work phone call!
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/ja…
http://www.wochit.com

This video was produced by YT Wochit Business using http://wochit.com

Aviation security industry veteran and Analogic vice president, Mark Laustra, talks about the role computed tomography technology can play in easing pressure on airports dealing with increased passenger traffic and limited expansion options.

Earlier this year, IATA announced a rise in international airport traffic of 7.9%, with capacity rising 6.3%, and last week the TSA announced it is on target for the highest-volume year on record in 2018. Simultaneously, some sources note that non-aeronautical revenues at airports in the USA and European markets are falling, with spending-per-passenger suffering.

Airports, once the gateway to adventure, and a destination in their own right, have lost their appeal in recent years. They are now typically viewed as a necessary hassle for travelers, or worse, a source of anxiety due to ever changing security protocols and unpredictably long lines.

Travel tales about experiences at the airport are very likely to be focused on long, stagnant security lines rather than the shopping, dining venues and duty-free options. And with rising passenger numbers and falling airport revenues, the problem could get worse before it gets better.

At Passenger Terminal Expo in Stockholm in March, airports around the world told Analogic that they are looking for technology that can help manage increasing passenger numbers, and that options for expansion are limited. Many airports operating at capacity are already maxed out in terms of available space and are unable to divert resources to expand the number of security lanes.

Even if airports have the resources and space to expand, they would want to devote that real estate and those resources to retail, rather than security.

Technology and the airport experience

The airport experience has undergone a transformation in just the past few years, with technology assisting in every aspect of the passenger experience starting with booking a flight, to retrieving itineraries, uploading boarding passes, and even arranging for transportation to and from the airport through a rideshare service from a passenger’s phone.

Everything is done through apps and is accessible on mobile devices; indeed Global Entry has simplified the process of international travel.

However, the passenger then arrives at the airport terminal to check in and everything stops. Legacy security technology incapable of evaluating today’s cluttered cabin baggage for security risks slows passenger throughput to a grinding halt.

Confused passengers must determine what level of divestiture is required, and then unpack their overcrowded bags to put things into bins, locate electronics, etc, slowing throughput and leaving everyone frustrated – from the seasoned business traveler who is stuck behind a family of four, to the family traveling with multiple bags and multiple personal electronic devices.

Nothing feels sleek or cutting edge about this experience because, quite simply, it isn’t.

Free-up space for retail

There has been a lot of discussion about computed tomography (CT) technology for airport checkpoints from a security standpoint, but this technology also offers airports an innovative way to address growing passenger traffic without having to devote valuable airport real estate to more security lanes.

In the development process for CT technology, a demonstration with Luton Airport in the UK was conducted that found that throughput could increase by as much as 50% when maximized with automated screening lanes (ASL).

Technological advancements such as CT and innovations like ASLs will prove valuable to airports that need to increase capacity without expensive renovations or expansions, and allow them to devote their resources and real estate to retail options that both boost airport revenues and improve the passenger experience.

Technologies will transform the travel industry and help airports become a destination unto themselves. In short, they will make airports fun again.

source : Passenger Terminal today

It’s that time of year when so many of us are preparing to take a vacation, but going to the airport with family can be a big headache.

No one loves checking in early at the airport or, even worse, arriving early only to find out your flight is delayed. We have some advice to help you navigate Houston’s airports.

“There’s no more wandering around trying to find something,” says spokesperson for the Houston Airport System, Bill Begley.

Bush and Hobby airports have kiosks which serve as your high-tech airport guide. You can also use those interactive maps on your smartphones or other devices to search for directions to amenities like restaurants.

A map at the kiosk or on your phone will track your path through the airport using turn-by-turn technology. It even tells you how long it will take to walk there.

“You’re not locked in where you’re at. The airport is wide open to you, and it’s right at your fingertips,” said Begley.

Begley says travelers at Bush Intercontinental Airport often mistakenly think they have to stay in their concourse. Beyond security, the Skyway is usually a three to five-minute wait to head to any terminal for spots like the recently-opened barbeque pit inside Terminal E. It’s called The Q, and the meat is smoked right at the airport.

The bridge which takes you to the Skyway is known as a quiet spot if you’re looking for a moment alone. It’s home to a small portion of the Houston Airport System art collection. Bush and Hobby airports feature many of the collection’s 220 pieces of artwork worth $40 million. You can find the location of specific pieces you want to see online, or if you prefer live music, you can find the schedule and location for performances.

The airports also know travelers’ most important amenity: charging stations.

“There are 10,000 now, so you should be able to plug in where you need to at Bush or Hobby airport,” says Begley.

For new moms, nursing stations are now available at Bush in Terminals B, C, and D. At Hobby, family restrooms are available for privacy.

You can find all of these amenities on the interactive maps.

source : abc13

Kavinda Herath/Stuff

Invercargill Airport general manager Nigel Finnerty with the control tower in the background.

Five air traffic control positions will be relocated from Invercargill Airport once a new digital control tower is put in place, with air traffic control being managed from a remote location.

The digital tower, which sends high definition video to a remote operations centre, is expected to be operational by 2020.

Airways chief executive Graeme Sumner said the five air traffic controllers employed at Invercargill Airport will be given the option to relocate to a central hub once the location of the hub is determined, and the company will be working closely with the controllers affected by this during the next couple of years.

The technology is already in use at airports around Europe, but Invercargill will be the first airport in New Zealand to feature an entirely digital tower.

“Digital tower systems give controllers additional tools to do their jobs, but it doesn’t make decisions for them. We still see people very much at the heart of managing aircraft in and out of airfields safely for many years to come,” he said.

he new control tower will feature a battery of sensors including surveillance, flight data and augmented reality overlays which are intended to provide controllers with a more detailed view than possible with the human eye, including infrared to provide controllers with improved visibility in low light conditions.

The tower will be operated from a separate building on the airfield initially, before air traffic controllers are moved to a central hub that will provide air traffic control services to a number of regional locations.

Airways, which provides air navigations services throughout New Zealand, issued a request seeking a supplier of digital tower technology for Invercargill on Monday.

A digital tower will also be constructed at Auckland International Airport, as a backup to the existing tower from 2020.

Invercargill Airport general manager Nigel Finnerty said Invercargill was selected as it had the right mix of air traffic to test the system.
“It doesn’t have the complexity of an international airport, but it is still pretty busy so any new system will be put through its paces. This is new technology and will be a new way of managing airspace around airports, so it is important we get it right,” he said.
The process of introducing the digital tower into the Invercargill operation will take some time, as the technology needed to be introduced and then approved by the Civil Aviation Authority, which could take up to two years, Finnerty said.
“After that, decisions will be made on how and where Invercargill air traffic will be managed from,” he said.
Passengers flying out of or into Invercargill won’t notice any difference during the implementation of the system, Finnerty said.
“They will see a new tower on the edge of the apron, but nothing else. Initially the new digital tower will work in tandem with the current tower until it is approved for use by CAA. The Air Traffic Controllers will then transition to managing the airspace from the new facility,” he said.
As the knowledge of the new technology grows, passengers should see the airport become more efficient with less flight disruption, Finnerty said.
“This technology, whilst still relatively new, is proving itself to be the way of the future. We are proud to be leading its introduction into New Zealand,” Finnerty said.

source : digital control tower

while providing an excellent service and the ultimate passenger experience? Software ties everything together! Vanderlande has developed its state-of-the-art VIBES software suite for airports. Watch this video to learn how VIBES provides control of baggage handling operations from check-in to loading.

source : https://tinyurl.com/yckqq5dt

but privacy advocates say that speed and convenience are not without risks.

(TNS) — Travelers navigating through a busy airport have become accustomed to a hectic juggle of IDs and boarding passes while lugging bags through security checkpoints and boarding.

Recently, companies including Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines have been gradually adding technology to streamline the process and replace IDs and boarding passes with fingerprints and facial scans.

Delta’s latest move along the biometrics path is allowing members of its Sky Club airport lounges to enter using their fingerprints instead of a membership card or boarding pass.

As more people become accustomed to using their fingerprints or faces to use their smartphones, travelers have also become inured to the spread of biometrics in the airport.

But some privacy advocates warn that convenience could mask the risks of a world where security depends on fingerprints and facial scans.

Some passengers have already been using biometrics to identify themselves at the airport. Instead of showing an ID at an airport security checkpoint, Clear members approach a kiosk and press two fingers down. Clear is a trusted traveler membership program with a tagline “No ID, no lines, no limits.”

Delta in 2016 struck a partnership with Clear and bought a 5 percent stake in the company as a crucial step in a much bigger plan to build the backbone for a biometrics system and database of passengers that could transform how travelers move through the airport.

As part of the partnership, Delta is incentivizing its customers with a discount to sign up for Clear, which normally costs $179 annually but is $99 for Delta frequent fliers and free for Delta’s diamond-level elite frequent fliers.

Delta and other airlines including JetBlue have also rolled out a hodge-podge of pilot programs using biometrics.

More reliable than people?

In Minneapolis, a machine with facial recognition can match Delta customers with their passport photos while they are checking their bags through self-service machines.

In Boston, JetBlue passengers have boarded international flights at a self-boarding gate with facial recognition as part of a test with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. JetBlue partnered with SITA, an air transport technology firm with U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, for the trial.

In Atlanta and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, Delta passengers boarding certain international flights have also had their identity verified through facial recognition, in a partnership with Customs.

At Washington’s Reagan National Airport, Clear members have boarded Delta flights using their fingerprints instead of a boarding pass. The idea is that international travelers would board using facial scans matched to passports, while domestic travelers would board using fingerprints matched to Clear’s database.

“We’re rapidly moving toward a day when your fingerprint, iris or face will become the only ID you’ll need for any number of transactions throughout a given day,” said Delta Chief Operating Officer Gil West in a written statement when the biometric boarding pass test launched.

SITA Director of Strategy and Innovation Sean Farrell said people are familiar with using cameras to take selfies, and “we’re using apps on our cellphones to do banking and signing onto those apps using our thumbprint. … People are starting to become more familiar with biometrics through that.”

In JetBlue’s test with SITA, about 90 percent of passengers opted into the facial scan for boarding, Farrell said.

Passengers “seem to really prefer self-service over manned processes. They much prefer to have their destiny under their own control and go to a kiosk rather than stand in line,” he said. The need to check travelers’ passports has prevented a shift toward more self-service, and facial scans can change that, he said.

While rolling out more self-service kiosks benefits passengers, Farrell said “it’s also undoubtedly got a cost element in it as well,” reducing the need for staffing. He said biometrics can also more reliably confirm identity than a person looking at a photo and comparing it to a person.

No common U.S. identification

Farrell predicted facial recognition, more so than fingerprints, will become the dominant form of biometrics for travel. Capturing images is “very cheap. … In addition to that everyone is carrying around passports these days which carry their face. It seems that face is going to be the way that things go.”

At the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused on digital rights, senior staff attorney Jennifer Lynch is wary of facial recognition, and sees a threat to privacy, “our constitutional ‘right to travel’ and right to anonymous association.”

But if people are concerned their movements could be tracked through an eye in the sky with facial recognition, Farrell said: “I think the truth is it is already happening, actually.” In the United Kingdom, for example, “they have literally thousands and thousands of closed circuit TV cameras all across the country that are available to law enforcement to track somebody,” he said.

Overseas, some airports have moved further toward use of facial recognition in airports. Singapore’s Changi airport opened a new terminal last fall with automated passenger ID checks using facial recognition.

In the United States, not all airlines are moving toward the technology like Delta and JetBlue are. Some carriers may be waiting to see if it will be mandated, and “if the U.S. government is going to offer any assistance to help pay for this technology,” Farrell said.

Another challenge is that for domestic travel, there is no common U.S. identification, with different states still using different technology standards for drivers’ licenses.

“We’re a long way from having a system that you could use for all domestic travelers,” Farrell said.

Still, he predicted rapid advancement of biometrics in airports. “What you’re going to see over the next two years is these trials that are starting now, by the end of this year, you’re going to see the first large-scale implementation rolling out in the U.S. Within two years, you’re going to see most major airports starting a major rollout.”

As the use of biometrics expands, Lynch thinks one of the greatest concerns is the risk of a data breach.

“There will always be adversaries that can figure out how to spoof these things — using a fake fingerprint or a photograph of a fingerprint,” Lynch said. “The big difference between a breach in the biometrics context and a breach of just general data is that your biometric information you can’t change. You can’t go out and get a new fingerprint easily like you can get a new driver license number of credit card number.”

She said better privacy protection laws are needed and private companies “have the responsibility to not collect too much information.”

“It’s hard as humans to assess the real risk to our privacy and security to providing this information,” Lynch said. “It feels like you’re just providing it one time and you’re getting this benefit of ease of travel. But it’s hard to understand the greater risk if your data were stolen or the system were hacked.”

Farrell pointed to the fact that the U.S. government already has photos of every passport holder, adding that “it’s already a very highly secure environment.” Biometrics can protect against someone fraudulently using your ID, he said.

“I think people should think about biometrics as a technology that actually protects them from a privacy standpoint.”

©2018 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

source : https://tinyurl.com/yazg9xth

Image via Emirates

APEX Insight: Emirates and Etihad are the latest airlines to announce trials of SkyLights’ virtual reality headset in its lounges. The winner of the 2016 APEX Newcomer of the Year Award’s primary goal is to deploy its immersive cinematic experience in flight.

Travelers flying with Emirates and Etihad this spring will have the opportunity to try SkyLights’ Bravo Evo virtual reality (VR) headset at select lounges. Etihad is testing the immersive cinematic experience at its first- and business-class lounges at Abu Dhabi International Airport’s Terminal 3 during the month of April, while Emirates is offering the technology in Dubai International Airport’s Concourse B – in its business-class lounge in April and in its first-class lounge in May. SkyTeam conducted a similar trial in its Dubai lounge at the end of last year.

The headsets, which can store up to 40 high-definition films, will be loaded with 2-D and 3-D content, plus 5 VR titles. Weighing 120g and with a battery life of six hours, the device is designed to be worn comfortably for several hours. 

“Our primary goal is to deploy in flight.” – David Dicko, SkyLights CEO

“Our primary goal is to deploy in flight,” David Dicko, SkyLights CEO, told APEX Media. “For major airlines that want to be sure the service is a fit with their premium guests on the ground first, the lounge is a step towards our in-flight ambitions.” 

The service is complimentary and Emirates plans to roll out the experience across all its lounges in Dubai if the trial is well received, but the cabin is where cinematic VR entertainment has the highest added value, according to Dicko. “Space is restricted, current IFE falls short of heightened entertainment expectations shaped by advancements on the ground and, at the same time, airlines are looking for more flexible IFE solutions that will differentiate their offering and foster customer loyalty,” he explained. “Our solution is tailored to do all of these things.”

SkyLights’ headsets have been tested in flight and received positive feedback. In January, a selection of more than 30 titles, including 180- and 360-degree VR videos and 3-D films, was made available to a delegation of VIP guests traveling on a Japan Airlines (JAL) Boeing 787-8. “Customers who experienced the VR videos praised the content, and we did not have any problems, such as VR sickness,” said Noboru Hirai, VP of Sales at JAL. Air France also conducted a trial for business-class passengers on flights between Paris and St. Martin in August of last year.

SkyLights will be at Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Hamburg next week, where it plans to announce a major new partner. Attendees who stop by the booth will be able to demo the Allosky headset, which was unveiled at APEX EXPO in September and gain first access to SkyLights’ white paper, “Virtual Reality IFE – Opportunities & Obstacles Addressed.”

source : https://tinyurl.com/y784wlqy