Last month, Germany-based integrated identity solutions company Veridos announced its leadership in a European Union project, D4FLY, that seeks to put in place multimodal biometrics for more secure and seamless on-the-fly identity verification mechanisms at border controls. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this effort is one of many intended to introduce smoother and faster checks of passengers’ identities in a contactless way.

A New Way to Travel

The new process of ID verification for travel in the EU will include three major steps.

When arriving at an airport, passengers will register themselves at automated enrollment kiosks by placing their passports on integrated passport readers. This is the first step. During this process, the second step begins: Cameras on the kiosk will securely capture a live photo of the traveler in order to biometrically compare the passenger registering with the passport photo in order to verify the identity of the traveler.

Additional biometric features will also be scanned and collected at this time. In D4FLY, a combination of iris, 3D face and somatotype (the measurement of structural aspects of the human body based on a full-body image) have been researched and deemed as suitable biometrics to be captured on the move during verification.

In the third stage, once the passenger has arrived at their destination, they will no longer need to show their passport at border control. Instead, they will be able to use their smartphone as a token to pass through border control by walking through a “biometric corridor,” where their biometric data are captured and authenticated by several sensors. Biometric matching results are then combined, successfully providing high accuracy in identity verification and enabling a seamless and touchless border crossing experience while maintaining high levels of security.

This new process is designed to be fully compliant with EU data protection and privacy regulations. More specifically, biometric data that is captured by the enrollment kiosks in stage one is encrypted and securely stored to make later enrollment procedures unnecessary. This means that on future trips, the ID verification process for travellers will become even faster and simpler. Furthermore, the data that is captured in the biometric corridor is immediately deleted once a traveler’s identity is verified after arrival.

“To check passengers efficiently and safely in the future, it is essential to speed up the border control process while at the same time providing high verification accuracy,” explains Veridos CEO Andreas Räschmeier. “As a leading expert in identity solutions, Veridos’ goal is to develop solutions that allow travel documents and biometric features to be checked without creating lines at checkpoints.”

ABOUT THE WRITER

Serena He is a Tech Innovation Fellow from the University of Southern California who is interested in AI and the intersection of design and technology. She enjoys covering news across the digital identity and tech space.

Contact Serena He at serena@identityreview.com.

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