EU Entry/Exit System: IDEMIA Reveals New Travel Kiosk for Biometric Identification at Airports
The first travel kiosk that will soon be placed at European airports for biometric identification of passengers has been revealed by IDEMIA, part of the consortium to which the eu-LISA has awarded a contract for the delivery of a new shared Biometric Matching System (sBMS), an important part of the EES.
IDEMIA, which is a global leader in Augmented Identity that serves to different enterprises and government customers worldwide, has revealed the new travel kiosk, including details how it will work and how it will address the challenges that the EU faces in terms of travel.
“By 2022, the new European Entry/Exit System (EU-EES) regulation will require the biometric capture and identification (face and fingerprint) of Third Country Nationals (TCNs) at outer borders of Schengen area. This will affect the border clearance processes for all member states,” IDEMIA says in a press release presenting the new travel kiosk.
It also points out that while the EU fears longer waiting times may occur due to limited airport space and lack of enough workforces to process more TCNs, the use of self-service technology at borders will be crucial to address these challenges.
According to IDEMIA, the new self-service kiosks are an obvious win-win solution for airports, border authorities and passengers, since they optimize airport space and border checkpoint resources, reduce waiting times and improve the passenger experience.
“These new generation multi-biometric self-service kiosks for border control offer user-centric solutions to process travellers efficiently. They create a better user experience by interactively adapting the process per traveller category, while strictly complying with the EU-EES requirements and ensuring the maximum security,” the press release explains.
The newly revealed multi-biometric self-service kiosk will offer fast and accurate traveller data capture, allowing reliable immigration prechecks and traveller registrations for air, land and sea borders, thus speeding up the border crossing procedures while increasing security and convenience.
What Does the New Travel Kiosk Offer?
The new kiosk, which is GDPR-compliant and user-friendly, will capture high-quality biometric data, including face and four fingerprints data.
The travel kiosk is suitable for a wide range of traveller profiles and will reduce traveller stress by also reducing waiting times.
It has a flexible design offering optional modules to meet specific cases, and optional battery and wireless connectivity. In addition, it is easy to connect to national and international systems and has an adapted workflow to each passenger profile.
EES and New Shared Biometric Matching System (sBMS)
The Entry/Exit System (EES) is a new EU border security system, that will register data on the entry and exit of non-EU/EEA nationals in the Schengen Area.
As soon as the EES becomes effective and fully operating, all EU authorities responsible for the processing of Schengen visa requests will be obliged to consult the EES first, before granting, annulling or revoking a Schengen visa.
The new kiosk follows a contract signed by eu-LISA with the consortium of IDEMIA and Sopra Steria, for the latter to complete the development of the sBMS by 2022, back in June this year.
The (sBMS), an important part of the EES, will be one of the world’s largest biometric databases that will contain information for over 400 million third-country nationals, including facial images and fingerprints.
