Passengers Accept Iris Recognition Technology in Major Airports

There are many passengers and people who have concerns that their personal privacy is being invaded having to go through the various biometric scanning at security checks in airports and public transportation sites. Storing personal information in databases seems nearly unavoidable at this point if you’re looking to travel, and it doesn’t seem like it will be long before iris and other biometric scanning equipment is installed in more and more places.

It’s something we’ll need to deal with. CNN is reporting good news for the biometric industry, however. In a new survey published by the airline industry group International Air Transport Association (IATA), business travelers are reportedly okay with biometric technology at airports. Many want to see more.

Iris scanning technology has already been introduced at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, and London’s Heathrow airport, JFK in New York, and Dulles in Washington are all toying with the idea. JFK, LAS in Las Vegas and others have been using full body scans for some time now and have seen good results.

The new iris scanning equipment in Amsterdam works like this: passengers register their details first, then a picture of their iris (the colored part of your eye that changes the pupil’s size) is taken. The information is recorded on a credit card-sized card, and as passengers pass through security points, they swipe the card and look into a scanner while the eye is checked and compared to the information on their card.

All in all, 1013 frequent business passengers, all having made on average 6 long flights in the previous year, were surveyed before flying from Schiphol, Heathrow, Frankfurt, and Singapore airports. It seems that increased security measures were a common request. The survey found 81% wanted to see more advanced biometric features installed in airports globally, 27% would have liked to see air marshals aboard planes, and 34% wanted reinforced cockpit doors.

There were some other interesting findings regarding the travel preferences of these passengers in general. One third of frequent business travelers say they had used low cost airlines to save money in the past year, and 37% reported they regularly used video conferencing to save time and money in place of travel. Email and Internet are two important in-flight features that were requested regularly and 60% of passengers interviewed were not averse to paying a supplemental fee for onboard Internet.

Iris scanning wanted at airports

Related articles:

1. Homeland Security to Start Testing Iris Recognition
2. Beware of Problems With Iris Recognition
3. Iris Recognition is Advancing. Could It Help Eye Tracking?
4. The All-In-One AOptix Face and Iris Recognition System
5. Iris Recognition: The Fingerprint of the Eye
6. Can Iris Scanning Technology Tell the Difference Between Twins?
7. Eye Tracking: Iris Scanning to be the Ultimate Reference Point?
8. Can Iris Recognition do away with PIN’s and Passwords?
9. Iris Recognition: Biometric Security in Mexico
10. Iris Recognition Finds Support at U.S. State Department