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Faro airport tests new passport control system
• 03 May 2007 •
 ALGARVE’S Faro International Airport will be the first in the world to test a new automatic passport control system. The “VBeGate” – smart gates for self-service e-Passport control using face recognition – developed by Vision-Box and Foreigners and Borders Service SEF, will be tested at Faro airport between May and June.
The Secretary of State for Internal Administration, Jose Magalhães, attended the ceremony, in which the first smart gates for electronic border control were delivered to Faro Airport. During the ceremony the new concept of the project RAPID - Automatic Recognition of Passengers Using Biometric Passports - integrated in the “Electronic Border Control System”, was also showcased. It is a modernised border control programme using cutting edge technology, which is scheduled to work alongside biometric passports from July onwards on entry and exit checkpoints at Faro and Lisbon airports’ border crossings. This is the first system worldwide to allow an automatic control of passengers who hold electronic passports, thereby removing the need for human action. This system combines the operations of reading and checking electronic passports with an innovating feature for assessing the biometric data which operates an automatic door opening device. This feature checks, in the first instance, the genuineness of the electronic passports and validates all data stored in the chip, and, in the second instance, it appraises the passenger’s identification by establishing a comparison between the photo stored in the chip and the image of the passenger in loco, automatically opening the passage door when the features of both images are the same.
RAPID was made secure by an intelligent system that allows the entry of one passenger alone and automatically adjusts the reading camera to his height. “The passenger presents his passport and the machine will immediately read the biometric information. The person then goes in front of a camera to have his picture taken. The system will compare it with the existing photo in the passport’s microchip, opening the door automatically if the pictures match,” explained Jose Magalhães.
The new system is also able to help to increase the security at Portugal’s borders by efficiently recording people travelling into and out of the country, using airline reservation information and capturing passengers' biometric data. The first Portuguese biometric passports, which will allow the bearer to use the new smart gates, were issued in September of last year and until now, more than 300 thousand passports have been issued. In the UK, however, the country of origin of most of the tourists who visit the Algarve, there are more than five million people who have already the new computer readable passports.
As of the end of May, Faro Airport will be equipped with 10 smart gates which will be evaluated by a group of experts from Algarve University until the end of June. The project, which is scheduled to be fully operational by next July at Faro and Lisbon airports, is a key first step in putting in place comprehensive electronic analysis of passenger travel data, which will be crucial to being able to register entry and exit without gross inconvenience to passengers. This innovative system will permit a highly rationalized management and a significant boost to the efficiency of border control. By reducing the process of border crossing to an average of less than 20 seconds, it will speed up movement of passengers at border control. Carlos Gonçalves, Associate Director-General of the SEF said: “The whole process is completed in just a few seconds, so this technologically advanced concept will allow a significant increase in the efficiency of our border control device.” |  Return to Top
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