UK Airports May No Longer Require Travelers to Show Their Passports
Unsplash
The next time you fly to the United Kingdom, you might be able to leave your passport safely tucked away in your bag. The nation’s airports will reportedly begin testing new facial recognition technology at “eGates” for arriving passengers, which would replace border control's standard physical passport check.
Trials of the technology could begin in UK airports as soon as this year, according to a report in The Times of London. If the tests run smoothly, the system could roll out across the nation. Phil Douglas, director general of the UK Border Force, told the paper that he wanted to make an “intelligent border” that used “much more frictionless facial recognition.”
Although the exact timing of the trial’s launch isn’t yet clear, the process could be similar to the technology used in Australian airports, which Douglas told The Times he’d used before and was “really impressed” by. “I had to apply for an electronic travel authorisation in advance and used my smartphone to read the chip in my passport,” Douglas said, according to The Times. “That sent the image of me in the chip to the Australian authorities. When I arrived in Australia, I didn’t even have to get my passport out of my bag. It is a really interesting concept
