In a very first initiative from India, facial recognition will be adopted in Hyderabad airport to scan through travellers, providing them with a facility of paperless travel and avoiding identity checks at multiple points in an airport.
As tweeted by Rajiv Gandhi Hyderabad International Airport, Hyderabad, soon the passengers will be free from the hassle of showing their tickets and ID cards at the Hyderabad Airport. “Facial recognition is expected to be fully functional from March onwards,” it said.
Currently, in a testing stage, the authorities believe that facial recognition technology will provide a faster and seamless check-in making it hassle-free and quicker than ever before. The airport is currently testing the technology while running staff trials and the expected to be completed soon for the flyers to avail thereafter.
The aviation industry has been aggressively working on adopting technologies such as analytics and artificial intelligence, and this is one of the moves that explore facial recognition system at a whole new level. Last year the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced a DigiYatra platform that aims at bringing paperless travel on the go. The ‘DigiYatra’ is an industry-led initiative co-ordinated by the Ministry in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India’s vision to transform the nation into a digitally empowered society.
Soon, passengers will be free from the hassle of showing their tickets and ID cards at the Hyderabad Airport. Facial recognition is expected to be fully functional from March onwards.@MoCA_GoI @sureshpprabhu @jayantsinha #RGIA #GMR #technology #airports #Hyderabad pic.twitter.com/hUgrEYfkY3
— RGIA Hyderabad (@RGIAHyd) January 17, 2019
How Will It Work?
The facial recognition system will be installed at multiple checkpoints in the airport such as entry gate, security check and aircraft boarding point. It will also be facilitated in the self-bag drop and check-in to identify the passengers.
A passenger can enrol at the registration kiosk placed at the terminal entry for registering the passenger’s face ID along with specified government-issued photo Identification proof. The passenger has to then scan the boarding pass at the designated E-gate that will automatically verify the boarding pass information and map passenger’s face.
Here is a demo of the testing that Hyderabad airport authorities uploaded:
Trials for facial recognition technology for faster and seamless check-in are underway at @RGIAHyd Checking in will soon be easier than ever before.#HyderabadAirport #RGIA #GMRRGIA #FacialRecognition @MoCA_GoI @sureshpprabhu @jayantsinha @HiHyderabad pic.twitter.com/R9dgc8WAGc
— RGIA Hyderabad (@RGIAHyd) 26 March 2019
The system will ease up the process and bring convenience to the passengers improving the overall customer experience. Hyderabad airport has already been using QR code based e-boarding for the past two years to bring a seamless and paperless journey for domestic passengers. If the testing goes successful, it may be the first in India to go live with such a facility. Other Indian airports such as Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune, Varanasi and Vijayawada are in talks to be rolling out similar schemes later in the year.
