Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

nextgov.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 183 posts

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#141

Post by lost_snake »

Johnny555 wrote: post #9

The scan takes fractions of a second and has shown to be 99 percent accurate during testing Presumably it's 99% effective at matching random faces to the photos -- if a terrorist group has a pool of 1000 stolen passports, with a system that's only 99% effective at maching a random photo, I think they could do much better at finding a person (perhaps with some surgical alterations) that fits in that 1%. The process el…

It's not about protecting anyone.

No terrorist organization is going to re-attempt 9/11, because why would you? Repetitions of the Mumbai attacks (notably in Paris) will be the norm, along with mass violence at a low intensity as Muslim radicals simply migrate in huge numbers into Europe and North America.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#142

Post by camillomiller »

17 years after 9/11, my question is: we never had any other event comparable to the twin towers attack because of the extreme security measures we took after that? Or is it a false causality? Can we even establish causality between the enhanced security and the lack of large-scale airplane attacks/hijackings?

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#143

Post by psychometry »

csomar wrote: post #135

> The process eliminates the need for an airline employee to manually check every boarding pass and passport while boarding a plane. Do they really do that? I mean in most airport? And in Dubai (dxb) you just scan the barcode on your boarding pass and board the plane. No one checks your identity.

Domestic U.S.? No one checks passports. International? Probably. Scanning a boarding pass takes very little time, so I don't see this as a big benefit to travelers.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#144

Post by jandrese »

melkiaur wrote: post #109
acjohnson55 wrote: post #45

I can't remember a time when I boarded a plane that I didn't have to wait in a queue on the jet bridge. How does this help with that? Also, I'm constantly seeing people accidentally end up in the wrong row or seat because they misread the label up above. Invariably, everyone takes out boarding passes to sort it out. Reeks of a trojan horse to get more pervasive face scanners in place.

I've only been once in Washington, and it was ages ago. But they have this incredible system where they put you in a massive bus (At first I didn't even realise it was a bus, it looked more like a room), and the bus goes to the plane, lifts ups, and docks to the plane door. So, it's very important they can cram the people in the bus as fast as possible. Do a google image search for "Dulles buses", you'll understand w…

They have not used the "mobile lounges" for normal boarding since the 80s. That said, occasionally when there is a fuckup they still have to use them, but it's rare. Almost every flight uses either the jetbridge or the stairs (for tiny commuter flights).

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#145

Post by wccrawford »

ceejayoz wrote: post #129
duxup wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the scanners for tickets are basically ... put ticket on scanner, beep ... now wait in a new line while people load up stuff.

It depends a bit. On smaller flights, there may only be one gate agent and scanner. If someone's boarding pass isn't correct or there's some other issue, there gets to be a big backlog while they get sorted out. Sometimes that takes several minutes, and the smaller flights are often the ones with short 20-30 minute turnarounds scheduled. Had this happen on a flight I took a few weeks back.

>If someone's boarding pass isn't correct or there's some other issue, there gets to be a big backlog while they get sorted out.

And that's still going to be the case with facial recognition.

The only time saved is scanning a ticket vs scanning a face. And people are pretty much guaranteed not to lose their faces.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#146

Post by furyg3 »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #72
Johnny555 wrote: post #9

The scan takes fractions of a second and has shown to be 99 percent accurate during testing Presumably it's 99% effective at matching random faces to the photos -- if a terrorist group has a pool of 1000 stolen passports, with a system that's only 99% effective at maching a random photo, I think they could do much better at finding a person (perhaps with some surgical alterations) that fits in that 1%. The process el…

Self-scanning in supermarkets was supposedly all about speeding checkout as a benefit to the consumer. This is about speeding boarding - that's the marketing friendly benefit to be shouted about. In actuality supermarket self-scanning is often slower than a traditional checkout queue. Particularly when items require staff authorisation. I expect this to be no better than traditional boarding in most cases. The real b…

Here in the Netherlands (at Albert Heijn stores) one small change from the US system makes all the difference: they don't weigh the product after you scan it. No 'unexpected item in bagging area' etc. It goes extremely quickly.

If there's a cashier with more than one person waiting I will go to the self-scanners.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#147

Post by ceejayoz »

wccrawford wrote: post #145
ceejayoz wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends a bit. On smaller flights, there may only be one gate agent and scanner. If someone's boarding pass isn't correct or there's some other issue, there gets to be a big backlog while they get sorted out. Sometimes that takes several minutes, and the smaller flights are often the ones with short 20-30 minute turnarounds scheduled. Had this happen on a flight I took a few weeks back.

>If someone's boarding pass isn't correct or there's some other issue, there gets to be a big backlog while they get sorted out. And that's still going to be the case with facial recognition. The only time saved is scanning a ticket vs scanning a face. And people are pretty much guaranteed not to lose their faces.

> And that's still going to be the case with facial recognition.

Not if it's an automated gate.

I just got back from Australia, and the passport gates there are automated facial recognition; they look kinda like the gates in a subway where you scan a travel card.

A reject heads over to the desk to get sorted. Everyone else keeps going through the automated gate.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#148

Post by jonny_eh »

hueving wrote: post #52
paxy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Identity checks are handled by TSA, not airline employees, so this scan has nothing to do with security. They check your boarding pass to make sure you have paid for the flight you are getting on. Also "99% accuracy" can mean it has a 1% false-negative rate rather than false-positive, in which case they will just defer to scanning the boarding pass like normal.

No, for international flights the airline additionally checks your passport at the gate (at least in the US).

To make sure you can get into the country when they land. They don't want to fly you back.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#149

Post by jonny_eh »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #86

>> “It doesn’t matter,” Maryland resident Kim Meekins said of not being informed ahead of time. “You go to different airports and they do different things depending on their technology. If it’s another safety measure to make sure everyone has a safe flight, I’m all for whatever. I didn’t need to be notified ahead of time.” "I'm all for whatever"! The hell does one engage rationally with that ?

She's trusting. It's not irrational to trust other people.

Re: Dulles Airport Surprises Passengers with Facial-Recognition Boarding

#150

Post by robotresearcher »

gok wrote: post #139
blitmap wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Passports are printed similar to currency. There are many features in them that are hard to replicate. It can be done but not easily, so it does fit the bill of "something you have" to authenticate. Not nearly as secure as a yubikey or an rsa token, but oh well.

Again this isn’t at passport control, it’s to board the plane after security.

Where your passport is again checked on most international flights. Or your driver’s license / photo ID on internal flights in many countries.
Post reply on HN