The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has unveiled its plans to trial biometric fingerprint technology for TSA Pre lanes at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, USA, and Denver International Airport in Colorado.
TSA is conducting a proof of concept demonstration to evaluate the operational and security impact of using biometrics to verify passengers’ identities using their fingerprints. The biometric authentication technology enables a traveler’s fingerprints to serve as both a boarding pass and identity document.
The technology matches passenger fingerprints provided at the checkpoint to those that have previously been provided to TSA by travelers when they enrolled in the TSA Pre application program. Once the technology finds a fingerprint match, it is able to obtain the passenger’s boarding pass information through Secure Flight.
Steve Karoly, acting assistant administrator of the office of requirements and capabilities analysis, TSA, said, “TSA looks at technologies and intelligence capabilities that allow us to analyze and secure the travel environment, passengers and their property. Through these and other technology demonstrations, we are looking to reinvent and enhance security effectiveness to meet the evolving threat and ensure that passengers get to their destinations safely.”
In the long term, this technology has the potential to automate the travel document checking process by eliminating the need for a boarding pass and identity document, and granting or denying traveler access into the security checkpoint through an electronic gate.
Written by Felicity Butcher
