Foreign visitors entering the Republic of Korea go through an immigration clearance process that features SMARTCORE multi-biometric acquisition stations (MBAS) with Lumidigm multi-spectral imaging sensors. Upon arrival to Korea’s busiest airports and seaports, all foreign visitors proceed to Korea Immigration stations and submit their arrival card and passport to the immigration officer. They then place the index fingers of each hand on the two of the US manufacturer’s fingerprint sensors for simultaneous fingerprint verification. The MBAS also photographs the face of each visitor during the transaction.
Made by SMARTCORE, an image processing and immigration solutions provider in South Korea, the MBAS is an ergonomic, integrated unit that captures both facial and fingerprint data at the Korean immigration stations. It minimizes imaging time and acquires high-quality biometric data.
Because the fingerprint sensors use multispectral imaging technology, the MBAS is able to read fingerprints on the first try. Multispectral imaging collects information about both the surface and subsurface fingerprint to capture reliable data, regardless according to the companies of whether a user’s finger is dry, wet, dirty, slightly rotated, or difficult to capture. Data is captured on the first try every time, allowing tired travelers to enter the country as quickly and easily as possible.
Bong Kyu Choi, President of SMARTCORE, says: “When selecting a fingerprint biometric for the MBAS, we had to make sure every visitor could use the device. We looked to Lumidigm because of the extremely low failure-to-enroll rates of their core technology. We were also able to leverage the superior performance of multi-spectral imaging to meet the liveness detection standards demanded by the Korean Immigration Service.”
Phil Scarfo, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at Lumidigm, adds: “SMARTCORE understands assured authentication. The MBAS is a well-designed device that delivers the security the government requires with multi-factor authentication while ensuring as much convenience as possible for visitors to South Korea. We are proud to be part of this project.”
The biometric immigration clearance process can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOmT2vkdGi0&t=1m31s.
