You’re in a long line at the airport. You’re up next for boarding. At the checking, instead of reaching for your boarding pass, you pull back your hair. The security holds a camera up to your face. The camera confirms a match to a photo in a biometric database, all of which is linked to your boarding details. And you’re done.
This futuristic scenario is actually not so far-fetched, and this future is closer than you might think. Research on biometric tech has amped up, leading to advancements in its applications. Not just on our cell phones or laptops, but in security for theme parks or large venues as well. In some high-end cases, it’s even a means for entry into vehicles.
Biometrics can mean a lot of different things—it could be a person’s DNA, facial features, fingerprints, heartbeat, and so on. It’s any metric that’s related to human characteristics, says Andrew Gouldstone, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and Yunsi Fei, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern University.
“There are certainly benefits to this sort of authentication process—biometrics is your human ID, parts of which can be very difficult to replicate. There are still concerns, though. This system will still rely on some sort of device to connect your image with the information you input. If that part of the process is online, a third party could capture it. Essentially, all the traditional cyber security issues are still there” says Fei.
Gouldstone talks about a new test program done at Logan International Airport. Passengers used biometric boarding passes that used fingerprint scanners and facial recognition software as result of wanting to increase convenience for customers. “This is being touted as a time-saving device and as a solution to the problem of people not wanting to carry around a boarding pass. Carrying a boarding pass really doesn’t bother me too much, though.”
He adds, “I would say that in my own experience, the bottleneck at an airport is not in the check-in line. There is a bigger conversation to be had here about overall airport operations. This is certainly not a magic bullet and it’s certainly not going to turn airports into conveyor belts of niceness and utopia”
Anisha Naidu
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