Biometrics at the airport

[sharon cook]

Well, it seems Austin, Texas is going to start using biometrics to identify their airport employees. They SAY they're going to use retina scans and facial recognition software and...alas and alack...the cheapest, most easily beat fingerprint scanners in the world. Remember on Mythbusters Jamie and Adam beat that cheap machine with a xerox copy of a fingerprint? Well, that's the kind of equipment that was shown in the news story about the new airport technology.

Once again, sophisticated technology in the hands of monkeys. I have yet to find any deputy in Travis County that can correctly scan a palmprint on Livescan. As far I can tell, they've never received any training on how to do it, but I'm sure the manufacturer said, "Oh, it's so easy, it scans itself!"

I hope Austin airport staff don't rely on the "training" offered by the manufacturers of the equipment. At most, ten minutes' worth and they'll be on their own. I see lawsuits ahead.

[Thomas Taylor]

According to the information I have read, the idea is that by using retina scans, facial geometry, and fingerprints in conjunction with each other, the resulting "identification" within a relatively small data base is very reliable. I believe the plans are to initiate similar systems for plane passengers, not just airport employees. The idea is that you might fool a fingerprint (missed identification) or facial geometry (not as reliable as many people think), but by combining all three, it overcomes the "error rate" of the three separately.

[MGaines]

So is it left to the airport staff to decide which test to rely on? Say the machine can't match your fingerprints and your retina scan is inconclusive, but the facial recognition authenticates you. It could turn in to a game of rock, paper, scissors. I see how if all three came back green it works great, but if all three don't come up with the same answer... what then?