Dubai: For visitors or residents coming in to Dubai, a new face-recognition software in the offing at the Dubai International Airport will enable them to walk straight to the baggage claim area after deplaning without having to stop at passport control.
British start-up ObjectTech announced that they will work with the Dubai government to install biometric tunnels that scan people’s faces as they walk to baggage reclaim.
The "biometric border" walkway takes a 3D scan of people’s faces as they enter the airport and checks it against a digital passport using face-recognition software.
Digital passport
The digital passport, created for the system, contains information from the electronic chip in physical passports, as well as additional details including fingerprints, iris scans and face-recognition data.
The company said that in April this year, they signed an agreement with the Government of Dubai for the project to develop digital passports for seamless entry at Dubai airports.
“Dubai is committed to improve the lives of their citizens and visitors through technology,” Paul Ferris, co-founder and chief executive of ObjectTech said in a statement. “We are very excited to be a part of making that a reality.”
London-based ObjectTech will be working in partnership with the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) in Dubai to create the world’s first ‘gate-less border’, combining the power of biometric verification and the immutability of block chain technology.
When contacted, the GDRFA did not comment on the company’s statement.
Pre-approved
If this project is completed, passengers arriving at Dubai airport will be able to step off their flight and walk straight to baggage reclaim via biometric verification tunnels — allowing them to be registered into the country using a pre-approved and entirely digitised passport.
Seamless entry at airports has been an idea for many years, but it is the advent of the identity trust framework provided by block chain technology which is enabling this to become reality.
Earlier this month, Dubai announced that passengers departing from Dubai International Airport can now use their smart phones at the smart gates instead of their passports as part of a new service called Smart UAE Wallet.
The new facility is expected to reduce departure clearance time to between nine and 12 seconds per passenger.
The UAE Wallet app can be used in Terminal 3. It will be operational in all terminals after the wallet is linked with other airlines.
