A facial recognition system is to expedite immigration procedures at Incheon Airport from next year. The system scans the photo on a passport to store in a database and then takes a photo of the passport holder to make a comparison. Once introduced, it is expected to reduce the clearance process to 15 seconds.
The airport has been operating two automatic clearance gates with a facial recognition system on a trial basis since last year, and another 14 will be set up this year.
"Immigration procedures are shifting from fingerprinting or iris scan to face recognition. It's an international trend," an airport spokesman said.
"As all the information about your face is stored in a database, including the size and shape of pupils, nose and mouth, the accuracy is very high," claimed Samsung SDS, the developer. The pupil data are important as pupils cannot be changed with makeup or plastic surgery, it added.
The airport said about six months of tests last year revealed an accuracy of 92 to 94 percent. In Australia, New Zealand and Portugal, airports already have the facial recognition system, and it is being installed in the Netherlands.
The Korea Immigration Service has not decided when to start putting the system into full operation. According to the immigration office at Incheon Airport, it is still being tested and its introduction will only be possible when accuracy reaches reliable levels. Currently, the airport's automatic gates are based on fingerprinting.
courtesy of englishnews@chosun.com / Aug. 10, 2011 13:15 KST
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Korean Airports to Embrace Full-Body Scanners
Incheon International Airport and three others in Korea will introduce the controversial full-body scanners being installed at airports in the U.S., U.K. and elsewhere to prevent terrorist attacks on passenger planes.
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs on Wednesday said it will bring in six or seven full-body scanners, three to four for Incheon and one each at Gimpo, Gimhae and Jeju airports. They cost a hefty US$200,000 a piece. Only passengers who have been flagged on a primary security check or those whose names are on terror watchlists will be subject to the full-body scans, the ministry said.
At present, the U.S., U.K., the Netherlands and Japan are trialing full-body scanners, while Canada, France and Thailand have decided to install them. There have been calls within Korea to install the machines ahead of the G20 Summit in Seoul in November. But there are also concerns over invasion of privacy, since the scanners produce an anatomical image of passengers' bodies, including breasts and genitals. Detractors say the images could fall into the wrong hands. Spain, which chairs the EU, opposes their use.
"Pregnant women, small children and disabled people will be excluded from full-body scans, while measures will be taken so that images cannot be stored or transmitted elsewhere," a ministry official claimed. "Faces, genitals and breasts will be blurred so there should not be any problems." The ministry said it plans to situate image analysis teams in separate areas to protect the privacy of scanned travelers, while security staff will be barred from carrying cameras or mobile phones into the analysis rooms.
