News Archive

Biometrics At Airports

by msecadm4921

Bill Spence, Director of Marketing, IR Recognition Systems in the United States, reports on use of biometrics at US and Israeli airports.

On March 18, the Salt Lake City press, with much fanfare, announced that Salt Lake City International Airport was testing a hand geometry reader to control access into restricted areas. Employees would use a security card and place their hands into an IR Recognition Systems HandKey II biometric hand geometry reader to gain access. To enter such areas, the employee places his or her hand on the HandReader, which analyses more than 90 separate measurements of the hand’s length, width, thickness and surface area. The HandKey II compares this data with the hand ‘template’ previously stored in the reader’s memory. If the hand matches, entry to the restricted area is granted automatically. If no match is determined, the door remains locked. The hand verification process takes less than a second. Congressman Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who introduced the bill that calls for demonstration projects featuring biometrics in at least 20 airports nationwide as part of the Aviation Security Bill which President Bush signed in November, 2001. The first phase involves employees entering restricted areas, such as airport operating gates and areas, as in Salt Lake City. The second phase is a ‘Trusted Traveller’ type program that would screen passengers with a background check. Once a passenger has been determined not to be a security risk, she or he would go through the same checks as others at airport entry points, but the identification process for that person would be automated. Unknown to most of the public and politicians is that hand geometry units have been handling both duties with much success for some time.
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SFO: 100m verifications since 1991
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Access to the tarmac or air operations area (AOA) has become the critical concern at the nation’s airports. It’s been that way at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) for over a decade.
Roger Case, technician supervisor for San Francisco International Airport says: ‘Simple ID badges can be lost or stolen or given to friends. The HandReaders are reliable and enhance security.’ More than 180 of IR Recognition Systems biometric HandReaders are a critical element in San Francisco International Airport’s overall security systems. This system has been in use since 1991 and has produced over 100m verifications. On a busy day, the HandReaders provide over 250,000 verifications. This same hand geometry reader is now in use at nine major U.S. airports, including New York’s Kennedy International and principal airports serving Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Newark, New Jersey, and others. These biometric readers are a key component of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service’s INSPASS program. Frequent international travelers enrolled in the program use a self-service kiosk that includes a HandReader, thus avoiding long immigration lines. This system is similar to one used in Israel.
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Ben Gurion Airport
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More than two million people travel in and out Israel each year and many of them go through Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, one of the world’s busiest air terminals. As a result, airport officials turned to IR Recognition Systems and Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS) to help maintain security, while increasing travelers’ walking speed and expediting passengers through passport control. EDS developed an automated inspection system using its Express EntrySM technology. The system includes 21 automatic inspection kiosks throughout the airport. All of the kiosks are equipped with HandReaders. During enrollment, the system captures biographic information and biometric hand-geometry data. Then during arrival or departure, Israeli citizens and frequent international travelers use one of their credit cards for initial identification and the system verifies their identity with the HandReader. The system then prints a receipt to allow travelers to proceed. Since most of the people using the automatic inspection kiosks are known frequent flyers who are considered low risk, airport and border security authorities can focus on unknown travelers, which improves security and reduces waiting times. For example, the automated inspection process takes 20 seconds; passport control lines can take up to an hour. Israel Ben Haim, managing director of Ben Gurion International Airport, says: ‘Tighter security expedites air travel, and more efficient operations help make our airport one of the world’s best.’ Ben Gurion’s biometric identification system has reduced or in some cases eliminated waiting times for travelers. Nearly 100,000 Israeli citizens (two per cent of Israel’s population) have enrolled in the system and it is now processing about 50,000 passengers per month. Enrollments increase two percent per month. An airport expansion increased the number of kiosks and the system is approaching more than 2 million inspections. The automatic inspection system has even garnered awards. In June 2001, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) presented Ben Gurion International Airport Authority with a Golden Link Award for excellence and innovation in applying technology in government operations.
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Why Hand Geometry
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Hand geometry readers identify a person via a unique human characteristic’the size and shape of one’s hand. In recent years, the advent of inexpensive microprocessors and advanced imaging electronics have dramatically reduced the cost and increased the accuracy of HandReaders. As a result, HandReaders are now a common option for commercial access control systems. Millions of hands are scanned every day. Today, thousands of businesses, from banks to health clubs, use hand geometry for all or part of their access control needs. They are not just for nuclear power plants and airports any more! There are several reasons why hand geometry is used in more access control systems than any other biometric technology. First of all, the technology is easy to use. People like things that are simple and intuitive. How many times have you been frustrated at a card reader that gives no indication of which way to swipe the card’ To enter a facility with a HandReader, a person either enters a PIN number or presents a proximity or smart card. Then, in a motion similar to that of an airplane’s landing, the person swoops a hand into the reader. The technology is very forgiving and perfect placement is never required In approximately a second, if authorized, the person is granted access. HandReaders cause no discomfort or concern for their users. They don’t need to stand still or worry if they are being harmed. Civil rights don’t enter the equation with hand geometry. These may all be subjective issues, but if people are afraid to use a device, they most likely will not use it properly and that may result in them not being granted access. Hand geometry systems have proven to get the good guys in and keep the bad guys out. It must be emphasized that, on a busy day at SFO, the HandReaders perform 250,000 verifications. If little problems like cuts and bandages were keeping those authorized to be on the tarmac from getting to the tarmac, the system would not have survived over a decade of use. Likewise, if it didn’t keep the bad guys out, it would have been quickly shelved, especially after 9-11.It’s also important to remember that in a card-based system, if one forgets one’s card, the person doesn’t get in. With hand geometry systems, nobody has ever forgotten their hand. A cut on my hand’ No problem. The hand geometry reader is reading 96 separate measurements of the hand’s width, length, thickness and surface. In other words, think of it as reading the shadow of the hand, not the hand itself. This brings up another plus for hand geometry. The civil libertarians are much more tolerant of having your shadow read versus colleting a detailed image of a physical characteristic.
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A bandage on the hand’
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This is a better question but, still, this typically causes no problems. Here’s why. When the reader looks at the hand it will notice that a change has taken place on the finger with the bandage. But a bandage is a small change and the measurements from the other three fingers and hand match. The user will be granted access. If a large split was on the finger rather than a bandage, this change is very significant and, depending on the user-set security level, the user might be denied access. Lastly, hand geometry systems are very flexible when considerations of integrating them into access control applications are discussed.
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Conclusion
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The goal of any access control system is to let authorised people, not just their credentials, into specific places. Only with the use of a biometric device can this goal be achieved. A card-based access system will control the access of authorized pieces of plastic, but not who is in possession of the card. Systems using PINs (personal identification numbers) require that an individual only know a specific number to gain entry. But, who actually entered the code cannot be determined. On the contrary, HandReaders verify who a person is by what they are. The primary function of any biometric device is to verify the identity of an individual. However, access control requires the ability to do several things: identify the person and unlock a door, grant or deny access based on time restrictions, and monitor door alarms. There are a variety of ways that hand geometry systems accomplish this task. First of all, hand geometry systems are often used in a standalone configuration, also serving as a complete door controller for a single door’to the server room, the pharmacy cabinet in a doctor’s office or at the members’ entrance to a health club. Users are enrolled at the HandReader and their hand geometry template is stored locally for subsequent comparison. Such systems are easy to install, implement, maintain and use. Many systems need to provide access to multiple doors. By networking the HandReaders together and then connecting them to a computer, several advantages are available to users. The most obvious is centralized monitoring of the system. Alarm conditions and activity for all the doors in the system are reported back to the PC. All transactions are stored on the computer’s disk drive and can be recalled for a variety of user-customized reports. Networked systems also provide convenient template management. Although a user enrolls at one location, their template is available at other authorized locations. Deletion of a user or changes in their access profile is simply entered at the PC. The most common way to integrate HandReaders into a conventional access control system, in order to bring extra security to the front entrance or server room, is via ‘card reader emulation’. The wiring is identical to the card reader’s wiring. In this mode, the HandReader essentially works with the access control panel in the exact same way that a card reader does. The ‘card reader output port’ of the HandReader is connected to the panel’s card reader port. When a person uses the hand geometry unit, it outputs the ID number of the individual if, and only if, they are verified.
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The Future
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With its extensive use over time, hand geometry is no longer considered to be an unknown technology. Today’s security professionals view HandKey II access control terminals as simply another tool in their access control arsenal. Prices are lower, accuracy is established and their benefits of increased security and convenience are being discussed in the mainstream press.<br>
As a result, hand geometry is finding its way into all kinds of applications beyond access control. Time and attendance, border crossings, day care centers, welfare disbursement and point of sale are just a few of the applications where HandReaders are currently utilized. The use of smart cards is growing and so is the amount of information they can store. The more data stored, the greater potential for privacy and security issues. Hand geometry terminals provide an obvious solution to these issues by verifying that the template on the card matches the scan in the HandReader. <br>
Hand geometry got its start in very high security applications. The primary design objective was to keep the bad guys out. Today, it is surprising to many that the major users of hand geometry access control are not in the airports and at military bases but in applications requiring minimal security. Health clubs particularly are major users because biometrics easily let customers into the club without having to use cards. The customer doesn’t need to carry another card or remember it and the club doesn’t have to issue and administrate a card system. If the goal of an access control system is to control where people, not credentials, can and cannot go, only a biometric device, such as a hand geometry reader, truly provides this capability. Nowhere is this more evident than at the airports above.

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