Biometric passenger check-in on a tablet

On 13th., April, Safran presented their annual innovation awards at their Villaroche head office. A number of the group’s subsidiaries, received awards for fifteen successful inventions. One was the Morpho Tablet, which intrigued us.

This 600 gram ( 1.3 lb. ) tablet allows the biometric identity of a person to be verified from a photograph or their fingerprints. Checking-in passengers or confirming their identity in seconds at the airport, are just two of its possible applications.

Arnaud Duparc, Product Manager, Morpho :

"If Morpho tablet is used in an airport, we have the possibility of embarkation area access control by capturing a person’s facial features. Firstly, by reading the information extracted from the person's portrait contained in the passport. Once the data is extracted from the passport photo’, it is compared with another of the individual, taken in situ, with the tablet, to ensure that there is a biometric match between the passport photo’, and that of the person facing the operator. It is also possible to check-in with your fingerprints by using the integrated biometric sensor in the tablet."

In this way a customs officer can check the identity of an already checked-in passenger, thanks to their biometric data. The tablet has not yet been installed in an airport, but it has already proven itself. In India, Egypt and Mali, it has already been used to verify the identity of citizens during elections.