Clearing Airport Lines In The Blink Of An EyeClearing Airport Lines In The Blink Of An Eye

Not only are the eyes the windows to the soul, now they're the key to speedier clearance at international airports.

About 2,000 frequent-flier passengers with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways who are traveling to London's Heathrow Airport this fall will participate in a program that lets them bypass immigration agents and keep their passports out of sight. To be identified, passengers will look into an iris recognition machine that matches the unique patterns of the iris, or colored part of the eye, with their frequent-flier number.

EyeTicket Corp. makes iris recognition software, which extracts 512 bytes of binary pattern data from the photo of an iris, says Evan Smith, senior VP with EyeTicket. Smith says the company then discards the photo and stores the binary code on its Linux-based servers. It takes up to two seconds for the system to identify a passenger who walks up to a iris recognition machine in an airport, which resembles a video camera. The software already has processed more than 300,000 entries of employees at the airport in Charlotte, N.C., without error.

The Heathrow Airport test is being sponsored by the Simplifying Passenger Travel Interest Group of the International Air Transport Association. Smith says the group also is studying the use of radio frequency identification devices to track luggage, but the instant identification and electronic processing of passengers is a key focus.

Passengers and airlines are always looking for ways to make the travel experience more efficient, but the use of iris recognition technology is going to take some time to catch on, says Norman Rose, president of Travel Tech Consulting.