Facial recognition technology to replace passports at Australian airports

Facial recognition technology to replace passports at Australian airports — ZDNet — “New technology will be rolled out at Australian airports that will eventually see the end of ‘known passengers’ producing their passports when arriving in the country. Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton said on Wednesday the new AU$22.5 million, three-year contract will initially see 105 new smartgates rolled out that will enable passengers to be processed using facial recognition.”

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  1. Facial recognition by customs agents using the photo in the passport has always been a part of border control. It exploited the ability of people to match faces to photographic references. Computers are just reaching parity with humans for this task. If the facial image reference of all Australian travelers (passport holders} are in a database, then the computer can perform the recognition task for returning Australian Citizens at the Australian border.

    Passports may remain necessary for Australians traveling to other countries but a special automagic corridor for returning Australians can improve both the effectiveness and efficiency of control at the limited number of ports of entry to the island nation.

    It is a major step toward the future in which computers will know everyone and control most borders.

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