For the first three months of this year passengers travelling from Heathrow Airport Terminal 3 to Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific or to Dubai with Emirates were able to take part in an innovative trial employing a series of new technologies and processes aimed at making air travel easier.

Using biometrics recognition technology, including fingerprint, face and iris recognition, the miSense project aimed to simplify and speed up airport check-in and boarding while strengthening security levels.

Stephen Challis, head of product development at BAA, says that the trial was the culmination of 18 months of investigation and investment.

‘This was a three-month trial involving more than 3,000 passengers, three governments, eight partners, two kiosks, wireless links and an enrolment station, plus facilities in London, Hong Kong and Dubai,’ he says.

‘We wanted to look at improving the efficiency of airports, simplifying processes and making life easier and more secure for the traveller.’

The companion miSenseplus project brought together the government immigration services of the UK, Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates, to create an international fast-track passport control service.

Passengers enrolling for this service had all 10 fingerprints scanned, plus an image of their face and a scan of their iris taken. A smart membership card was issued, which allowed them to enjoy fast-track immigration clearance when arriving and departing from the three airports.

‘The smartcard operated a self-service gate and the technology performed the role of the immigration officer allowing them into the country,’ says Challis.

‘If one country wants iris scans while another accepts fingerprints, taking all 13 biometrics will ensure interoperability is possible at a later date. For this we need the technology and inter-government protocols to work together.’

Unique cryptographic keys identified and validated each traveller based on their biometrics information. In addition, database encryption from nCipher protected stored passenger information and passport details to ensure compliance with data protection legislation.

‘This was a small trial designed to test lots of things at the same time – ease of data capture, the reaction of passengers, how well the technology worked – all in the realistic environment of the world’s busiest airport,’ says Challis.

‘One thing is clear: as a consortium we have become experts in biometrics in an airport environment. We now have to work out how these valuable outcomes of the trials can influence future projects.’