Airports are rapidly rolling out biometric technology to improve security checks. As discussed by Amadeus experts, Clear is powering, boarding, and other processes for new booking lanes, even if autonomous sovereign IDs are imminent, because of the potential for huge changes, such as The group including Evernym representatives explained. Vision-Box is celebrating at the 2020 World Expo, secunet has deployed the technology to three airports, and Elenium has cooperated to fulfill the contract with the US federal government.

In the recent CAPA Live event organized by the Aviation Center, the potential impact of self-sovereign identity on digital identity in the hotel and tourism industry was emphasized.

Gene Quinn, co-founder and chairman of TravelScrum, described the Sovereign Sovereign ID (SSI) as "the forthcoming wave of change" and suggested that organizations can "ride the wind and waves, come oncoming, and flip it gently, as if it would drive To the shore, otherwise you may be trapped on the shore and let it swallow you."

Nick Price of the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF) and Jamie Smith of Evernym joined Quinn's discussion.

Price is the chair of DIF's Hotel and Travel Special Interest Group, and he reviewed what SSI is. He compared SSI in the 1970s and 1980s with TCP/IP, HTTP and browsers in the late 1980s and mid-1990s, and GSM and mobile revolutions in the early 1990s as generational interruptions.

Smith further briefly described the technology and its working principle with the example of using the IATA travel pass for international air travel.

Smith said that the key features are the openness of the system, the centrality of individuals and their digital wallets as data storage, and privacy protection. Like Price, he believes it will be as destructive as cloud and artificial intelligence. It will enable "new partnerships, ecosystems, products, customer experiences that we have never seen before."

Price said that today's travel and hospitality industry has a lot of data, but it is difficult to use because it is "dirty" and untrusted. Therefore, the company proposed a goal of data theft, but did not make full use of the data. If individuals provide travel providers with verifiable information that they keep up-to-date and accurate, the service provider can guide them through the sales funnel without having to bear the cost and related challenges of storing customer data.

Smith pointed out that the data is authentic, applicable to the person who provided the data, and the verifiability that has not been tampered with or revoked means that the use of the lounge, passport control, baggage check and claim, and proof of health status, in a set of examples, can be Directly shared by consumers and supported by the functions of contemporary mobile devices.

Smith pointed out that the work of empowering those who don't have smartphones continues.

The use cases of SSI in travel that the DIF Special Interest Group is working on include soliciting offers to purchase products or services, KYC processes, and handling travel interruptions, such as passengers rescheduling reservations on the tarmac.

Orlando International Airport collaborated with Clear, Travel Leisure Report to launch a special "booked lane" for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inspections.

Passengers choose from the available time slots and receive a QR code to show that they passed the TSA inspection at that time.

Earlier this year, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport launched a similar TSA reservation system that does not involve Clear.

"The proliferation of biometrics is definitely coming," TSA Chief Innovation Officer Dan McCoy told Travel Weekly. McCoy said that biometrics and mobile devices will make carrying traditional IDs optional, as airports and officials are working to "quick screening."

He also believes that due to advances in artificial intelligence and international data sharing, most carry-on items do not need to be screened soon.

McCoy pointed out that one of the changes that TSA made during the pandemic was to redirect the Credential Authentication Technology (CAT) device provided by Idemia to travelers, allowing them to insert their driver's license instead of handing it over to a TSA agent.

Vision-Box demonstrated its biometric technology and automated border control technology for seamless travel at the ongoing Expo 2020 in Dubai, as an example of the Portuguese technology sector.

Pedro Pinto, the company's head of global business development, talked about his experience in biometric projects in the Middle East, such as Dubai International Airport.

Vision-Box is also one of the biometric providers that Lufthansa has been working with because it tries to use the technology in airports of different sizes and at different touch points in them, Patrick Sgueglia, manager of regulatory services and biometric products, told Future Travel Experience.

Sgueglia spoke to the publication before FTE Global's Biometric and Digital Identity Summit in Las Vegas from December 7th to 9th.

He pointed out that other biometric technology providers that Lufthansa is working with include Amadeus, SITA, NEC and Idemia.

"We were one of the first airlines in the world to invest in biometric technology, and we have never looked back since," Sgueglia said. He said that as a result, costs and revenue have improved.

Lufthansa is also part of the Star Alliance, which collaborated with SITA and NEC on contactless biometric platforms earlier this year.

The airline is planning to expand its biometric touchpoint deployment at its Frankfurt hub and airports in other countries.

According to the company announcement, secunet and its general contractor partner SSARM have implemented biometric border control systems at Sofia, Varna and Burgas airports in Bulgaria to comply with the European Union's Entry and Exit System (EES).

EES is set to end in May 2022, but the global semiconductor shortage may force further delays.

A total of 20 secunet easygates have been deployed in the three airports to collect facial and fingerprint biometric information of immigrants, which are now in use. Eight Easykiosk and 66 secunet easytowers and fingerprint scanners for biometric pre-registration of passengers from third countries have been deployed to fixed border control stations.

"The Bulgarian Ministry of Interior has implemented a safe and effective border control strategy at Sofia, Varna and Burgas airports, and adopted a turnkey solution of the secunet border equipment product portfolio, which represents an important step towards EES compliance. One step into the future,” concludes Marco Breitenstein, head of secunet's Department of Homeland Security.

Thomas Landgrebe, R&D manager of ICM Airport Technics, a subsidiary of Amadeus, said that modern automated check-in systems based on facial biometric technology face chaotic routes or lack of space between people.

Landgrebe wrote in a LinkedIn post that creating proper spacing will greatly increase the time required for the process, thereby reducing its benefits. Problems can also arise when the next passenger in the line is looking elsewhere and the next passenger looks directly at the camera.

Amadeus responded to this situation by developing custom biometric hardware and software that can track the passenger's precise 3D position as they approach. He said this reduces the need for precise spacing, eliminates the need for airline agents to organize queues, and even allows passengers to approach the boarding gate more naturally.

Elenium Automation has established a strategic partnership with Micro-X as the main contractor to design and test the self-check security portal to help fulfill the contract with the US Department of Homeland Security.

Micro-X signed a pair of contracts with DHS in September; one for the mini X-ray baggage scanner and the other for the self-inspection security portal. The portal is located in a booth and consists of a voice-controlled multi-step screening process. According to Elenium, the total area occupied by the channel is only one twentieth of the traditional sequential channel. The plan is to integrate Elenium's HealthGate technology with Micro-X's system to detect potential symptoms of infectious diseases.

Airport | Amadeus | Biometrics | Biometrics | Border Management | Clearance | Digital Identity | Ellen | Immortality | Identity Verification | Safety Net | Self Sovereign Identity | Vision Box

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