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IP: INS Offers Biometric System for Frequent Flyers
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Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 09:18:32 -0500
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Subject: IP: INS Offers Biometric System for Frequent Flyers
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Source: Wired
http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/15014.html
US Takes Immigration in Hand
by Theta Pavis
4:00am15.Sep.98.PDT
It's been 44 years since Ellis Island closed
shop, but immigration can still be a long,
tiresome process. In an effort to speed the
process for international travelers, the US
Immigration and Naturalization Service is offering
a biometric system for willing frequent flyers.
So far, 71,000 people in six airports have signed
up for the system, called INSPASS. It employs
a biometric kiosk to scan and match the
geometric dimensions of travelers' hands, verify
their identities, and perform standard
background checks. The INS plans to expand
the program to four additional airports by the end
of the year.
"It creates a fast lane for people," said James
Wayman, head of the federally funded National
Biometric Test Center at San Jose State
University.
The kiosks were integrated by EDS, which has
had a US$300 million contract with the INS for
automation support and software development
since 1994. This summer, the INS awarded a
new, five-year information-technology contract
worth $750 million to EDS and four other
companies.
Ann Cohen, an EDS vice president in the
government services group, said the fact that so
many people have signed up for the INSPASS
system shows that biometrics are becoming
more popular and could be commonplace in the
future.
"Were getting over that 'Big Brother' hurdle,"
Cohen said. As e-commerce develops and
terrorism grows, biometrics increasingly are the
"only sure way to get security."
US and Canadian citizens flying overseas on
business at least three times a year are eligible
for the free INSPASS program. People from
Bermuda and 26 other countries that have
visa-waiver agreements with the United States
are also eligible.
The INSPASS kiosks, which look like ATM
machines, were recently installed at the Los
Angeles International Airport, where more than
1,000 people have enrolled in the program. Rico
Cabrera, a spokesman with the INS Los Angeles
regional office, said travelers like the fact that
INSPASS can check their identity in 16 to 60
seconds, a process that can take up to three
hours at some airports. The largest group of
INSPASS users at LAX are US citizens,
followed by Australians and New Zealanders.
After filling out a one-page form and passing a
background check, travelers can be issued a
Port Pass card with their picture and a
12-number ID on it.
A traveler inserts the card in the kiosk, which
reads the ID number and links to a centralized
database run by US Customs. A geometric hand
template is called up from the database and
transferred to the kiosk. After a green light
flashes, the right hand is placed on a reflective
surface -- the ID-3D Handkey, made by
Recognition Systems. The HandKey uses a
video camera to take a geometric image of the
traveler's hand and fingers, and the data is
converted using compression algorithms. If it
matches the template of the hand stored in the
database, the traveler is in.
INSPASS kiosks are also in use at airports in
Newark, Miami, Kennedy (New York), Pearson
(Toronto), and Vancouver, British Columbia. The
INS eventually plans to install them at most
busy international airports around the country,
including Washington, San Francisco, Seattle,
and Honolulu. The department has geared the
program toward business travelers, diplomats,
airline personnel, and other "low-risk" visitors.
Some argue that the INS hasn't done enough to
market the program. Jeffrey Betts, WorldWide
Solution Manager for IBM -- which has developed
FastGate, a kiosk similar to INSPASS -- said
people aren't enrolling fast enough in the INS
system.
International arrivals at airports across the globe
are growing every year by 7 to 10 percent, Betts
said, but border control resources are flat or
declining. In 1996, some 65,000 people were
enrolled in the INSPASS program, but the
program has added just 6,000 new users since
then.
IBM, which has been running a small pilot
program of FastGate in Bermuda for the past
year, is building a system where people can
swipe a credit card through a kiosk at the airport
and connect with a database where the
biometrics are stored.
"Governments will have to find ways to do more
with less or force travelers to queue like cattle,"
Betts said.
While the government plans on marketing
INSPASS more aggressively in the future,
Schmidt said, INS is counting on word of mouth
to get new people enrolled. "We don't really have
the budget for a huge marketing campaign," she
said.
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Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: [email protected]>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'