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SMART
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Fresh thinking on the

smart ticketing & mobility
payments landscape.
All you need is face: Now is the
time for transport operators to
embrace facial biometrics
Jon Payne
Seamless, safe, contactless passenger experiences are all
Director Strategic Alliances,
the rage. Everyone – passengers, operators and
Identity Verification
governments – stand to benefit from a more digital,
secure, and convenient journey.

When it comes to adopting the right technologies to

enable seamless travel, biometric security is increasingly
Jon Payne is Director, Strategic
accepted and perhaps even expected. But which Alliances for Entrust's Identity
biometric? Until very recently, facial biometrics lagged Verification business unit. He joined
Entrust in 2021 via the acquisition of
behind other modes, such as fingerprints and iris, in terms WorldReach Software. Jon has more
of accuracy. Not anymore. than 25 years' experience in
immigration policy and operations,
having served as Regional Director,
Americas at UKvisas, and as Director of
CSC's Global Citizen Services Center of
Exponential Growth in Accuracy Excellence.

In its 2020 Facial Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT), NIST (US

National Institute for Standards and Technology) found
that leading facial identification algorithms had error rates
of only 0.08% - that’s less than one error per 1,000 images,
and a 50x improvement in accuracy over six years since
the measurement from 2014 (Center for Strategic &
International Studies, 2020).

To understand the impact of this on seamless travel, an Shannon Kerrigan

investigation was conducted by NIST on the use of one-to- Senior Sales Executive,
many facial recognition in airport transit settings where Fed Government
travelers’ faces are matched against galleries of expected
individuals. This 2021 report identified that the most
advanced facial recognition algorithms were capable of
checking the identities of passengers on 545 of 567 flights,
each carrying up to 420 passengers, without any false Shannon Kerrigan is a Senior Sales
negative errors (meaning the software fails to match two Executive in Entrust’s Payments and
Identity division. Leading business
images of the same person). Stated in terms of error rates, development in the UK and EMEA
this corresponds to identifying more than 99.5% of regions for the Identity Verification
portfolio, Shannon has worked both
travelers accurately with a single presentation to the public and private sector, driving
camera. These algorithms are continuously developing, strategy and delivery of innovative
border management, immigration,
with vendors reporting further improvements throughout seamless travel, and large-scale
2022. biometric programmes. She is a
member of International Border
Management and Technologies
Association (IBMATA), the Biometrics
Institute, and Women in Identity,
3 alongside specialist advisory groups to
the UK Government on future border
strategy and digital identity.

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Furthermore, recent studies analyzing performance across
gender, race, age, and ethnicities have found facial
recognition algorithms in 2022 to have no demonstrable
performance variance across these groups. This means a
seamless, high-standard experience can be enjoyed by all,
avoiding issues associated with human checks and other
biometric modes.

Benefits of Facial Biometrics

Alongside accuracy rates, facial recognition is the

biometric modality of choice for many travel and border
schemes as it enables: (i) interoperability with
international standards, (ii) ease of use – both for travelers
and operators, (iii) enhanced collection speed, and (iv)
greater acceptance and positive perception with travelers.
These points are expanded below:

i. Interoperability with International Standards

Prioritizing interoperability with international standards

enables operators to create and maintain trust between
countries, while facilitating the movement of travelers and
strengthening security. Enabling biometrics, digital
identities, and contactless capabilities to deliver seamless
travel experiences requires globally recognized standards,
including (but not limited to): ISO (International
Organization for Standardization), NIST Information
Technology Laboratory (ITL), ICAO’s passport digitization
standards, and IATA One ID.

ii. Ease of use Facial recognition is intuitive for travelers.

Travelers are familiar with the concept of standing in front

of a camera and having their picture taken. This is not
necessarily the case with other modalities such as iris
scans and fingerprints. This lack of familiarity with other
methods of biometric capture could result in inaccurate
image captures, so operators may find themselves
requiring more staff to help travelers navigate the process
smoothly. Using facial recognition mitigates this issue, so
travelers can continue their journey seamlessly with a
high-quality image captured.

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iii. Speed

Speed matters. Successful, future-proofed seamless

travel initiatives – such as those summarized below – rely
on the principle that each passenger’s identity must be
verified in a few seconds, not a few minutes. Individual
processing times of even one or two minutes per person
can be disastrous for queue management and the
traveler experience. This is another key reason for the
rapid growth of facial matching technology at the border.

iiv. Positive user perception

Facial biometric technology is generally more acceptable

in the public mind than other biometric modes,
particularly fingerprints, which are often associated with
criminality. Face is a non-intrusive means of data
collection that the majority of travelers are already
comfortable with, for access to mobile devices, for
example.

Facial Biometrics in Action

The following are just a few of the seamless travel

projects to which we at Entrust are contributing:

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) conducted a

pilot implementation of their Chain of Trust seamless
border clearance program for low-risk travelers. The
program included a contactless arrival process using
biographic, facial biometric, eligibility, and customs
information captured using the traveler’s smartphone
(identity verification & e-declaration). Validated
information was then used to derive an ICAO-
Compliant Digital Travel Credential (DTC) and store it
securely on their smartphone for subsequent
submissions of travel data to the appropriate
government agencies. This ensures the traveler is
who they say they are, while providing the
government with validated data to make a detailed
risk assessment.

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 Eurostar’s SmartCheck contactless fast-track pilot
allows business rail passengers to enroll remotely on
their mobile devices prior to travel from London St
Pancras to destinations in the EU. Ticket holders scan
their identity documentation using a smartphone and
complete a brief biometric face scan to verify that
they are the genuine holder of the identity document.
The document is authenticated and a DTC is derived
and stored securely on the traveler’s device within a
matter of minutes. On arrival at St Pancras,
passengers proceed through a dedicated
SmartCheck biometric lane. A face scan at the ticket
gate verifies that the customer has completed the
ticket check, with no presentation of paper or
electronic tickets needed.

A core element of the United Kingdom’s new plan for

immigration – moving towards a contactless travel
experience and a world-leading, digitized border – is
the introduction of the UK’s first Electronic Travel
Authorization (ETA) scheme. The UK ETA will be based
on facial biometrics and looks to deliver a streamlined
and seamless digital application process.

Future-Proofing Travel Systems

The technology to enable safe, seamless, contactless

passenger experiences is already here. Transport
operators and technology specialists need to work
together on new pilot programs to expand the use of
facial biometric technology and realize its benefits for
passengers and operators alike.

Securing a world in motion

Entrust keeps the world moving safely by enabling trusted experiences
for identities, payments, and digital infrastructure.

3We offer an unmatched breadth of solutions that are critical to

enabling trust for multi-cloud deployments, mobile identities, hybrid
work, machine identity, electronic signatures, encryption, and more.

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 Shaping the future of
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The views of the contributors to this report are their own, and the publication of this report does not
constitute endorsement of such views by Clarion Events Limited.

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