The Eyes Have It in Airport, Border Security Iris-Recognition Technology Being Used for Quick, Accurate Identification by Bill Pietrucha The old saying goes that the eyes are the windows to the soul. At Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands, border guards and security personnel may not get that intimate with a passenger or employee, but they will know whether he or she is who they say they are. Thatís because Airport Schiphol recently completed a one-year trial period of an automatic border passage (ABP) system using iris-recognition technology. ìThe ABP iris-scan program has been received as an outstanding success at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol,î said Inna Ratieva, executive vice president of the Schiphol/Joh. EnschedÈ Biometrics joint venture that designed, developed and implemented the program in cooperation with the Dutch Border Police and the Dutch Department of Immigration and Naturalization (IND). ìAfter a one-year trial period, beginning in September 2001 , the Dutch government approved recently the system as an official border-crossing technologyî Ratieva said. ìIn addition, anticipating the future generation of travel documents in the Netherlands, the smart card in use at Schiphol Airport is approved as a substitute for ticket and boarding [passes].î Based on the system performance and the low implementation risk involved, Schiphol Airport is currently engaged in a pilot program using the same security solution for employee access. The goal, Ratieva said, is to provide employee access by mid-2003 for approximately 50,000 employees at 144 secure access gates throughout the airport. ìA single card will integrate multipurpose encryption technology for access, employee bank debit card, employee personnel data and access to employee benefits,î she said, adding, that ìin the United States, we are introducing the product as an access control system for secure areas at airports, government agencies or other commercial enterprises.î Ratieva said the Schiphol/Joh. EnschedÈ joint venture is currently working on a pilot program using iris-scan technology for employee access at one of the terminals at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, ìand we are discussing similar applications with U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Defense.î Iris-recognition is the most reliable form of biometric identification, Ratieva said. During automatic border passage, the passengerís iris geometry will be compared with the iris information registered on the chip of a special personal card. The passengerís presence will at the same time be registered, ìmaking this an extremely secure means of border passage,î she said. The system is focused on three principal groups: providing airlines with a high-quality, hassle-free environment; providing the traveling business passenger and other passengers with a real-life, seamless travel component while guarding personal privacy (the biometrics component saved on the smart card is owned by the passenger and is not related to any government or other database); and providing the airport operator and the immigration authorities with fail-safe biometrics identity verification for the ìtrusted/registered travelers segment,î leaving them with free capacity in time and manpower to concentrate on the rest of the anonymous traveling public. The new border passage system using iris-recognition is part of Privium, the service program launched simultaneously by Schiphol Group. Currently, Austrian Airlines, Air France, Alitalia, BMI British Midland, Cathay Pacific, Delta Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines System and United Airlines all have special counters at Schiphol offering priority check-in to Privium members, which is now used by approximately 2,500 people. By the end of 2002, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Schipholís home carrier will consider joining the Privium program with the first set of 12,000 frequent fliers. ìThe attractiveness of the underlying technology is that it can be adapted easily for a diverse set of applications,î Ratieva said. ìIt is the unique combination of fail-safe performance, low deployment risk, high level of convenience and privacy protection, and low life-cycle cost and scalability that make it highly desirable product for high-end security applications.î Currently, passengers holding the nationality of one of the European Economic Area (EEA) countries will be able to use border passage by means of iris recognition. The EEA consists of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein Iris recognition at Schiphol Airport does not make use of any existing equipment, Ratieva noted. The automatic border passage machines have been made entirely to Schiphol Groupís specifications, and the accompanying software is the intellectual property of the group. For privacy reasons, Ratieva said, the iris-scan data are not stored in any database but are stored only on the chip of the Privium Card. At the border passage, the data on the chip are compared with the data of the actual eye. Any scanned information is immediately removed from the machine. Ratieva added that IBM will work with Schiphol Group to extend a subset of the biometric security features in this system so it can be used by airlines and airports for passenger identification and tracking in functions such as ticketing, check in, screening and boarding. Last April, IBM joined with Schiphol Group to offer other airlines and airports around the world the automatic border passage system. Under terms of the agreement, IBM will team with Schiphol Group to perform all systems integration, provide the necessary hardware and software, and assist Schiphol Group in modifying the system to develop new solutions and security components to meet evolving security requirements. Bill Pietrucha is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. Your Eyes Are Your Passport Biometric identification is based on the principle of individual human physical information, said Inna Ratieva, executive vice president of the Schiphol/Joh. Enschede Biometrics joint venture that created the automatic border passage (ABP) system using iris-recognition technology at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands. Iris recognition is just one form of biometric identification, which also includes fingerprinting and palm-print identification. However, iris recognition is faster and more reliable. The iris never changes and is almost undamageable. A scratch to the finger or palm, however, can make other types of biometric identification more difficult. The security procedure for this solution involves two phases. In the first phase, the passengerís personal details are verified by the Dutch Border Police before the traveler is qualified and registered. This 15-minute process includes verification of the passengerís nationality, identity, and the authenticity and validity of the travel document, as well as a passport review, background check and iris scan that is encrypted and embedded on a smart card. A photograph of the iris will then be made of both the passengerís eyes. During border passage, passengers can opt to have their right or left eye scanned. The second phase identifies and verifies the registered traveler at the border passage checkpoint. This is done when the traveler approaches a gated kiosk and inserts a smart card in the kiosk card reader. The system reads the smart card and allows valid registered travelers to enter an isolated area. The traveler then looks into an iris-scan camera so that the iris can be matched with the data on the smart card. If a successful match is obtained, the passenger can continue to the gate. If the biometric analysis fails, the automatic gate directs the traveler to the front of the queue for the standard manual passport check. The entire automatic border passage procedure is typically completed in about 10 to 15 seconds. During border passage, iris recognition is not affected by the fact that a person may be wearing glasses or contact lensesóeven colored contact lenses. Only sunglasses hinder iris recognition. People with one prosthetic eye can also use the iris-recognition system. By adding dedicated software to the iris scannerís standard software, Ratieva said Schiphol Group has designed the system so that it does not use a database but can receive data from a smart card chip, which means there is no sharing of the iris information. The use of individual smart cards rather than a biometrics database, coupled with the fact that program enrollment is voluntary, has eased concerns about privacy. Because of a strict separation of data on the chip, the card reader is also able to read the Dutch Border Police data independently from the biometric information, further easing privacy concerns. Ratieva added that Schiphol Group and Joh. EnschedÈ have already signed a cooperation agreement to internationally market the border passage system employing iris-recognition technology. ó Bill Pietrucha