Flights involve a fair bit of waiting around at the airport and queuing is one of many passengers’ bugbears. However, research has shown that there’s one thing that passengers might have which could be causing delays. This is due to the rise of facial recognition services at ePassport gates. E-passport gates use facial recognition technology to compare the passenger’s face to the digital image in their passport.
The machines can fail to function if the person is not recognised and the face and image do not appear to match up.
This means that anyone travelling with a beard could find themselves the cause of a hold-up at airport security.
Kevin Smith, Head of Technology at facial recognition specialists, Credas, told Feel Good Contacts that “beards and facial hair in general are typically the most common causes of failure.”
This is because facial hair can obscure any definite features for the machine to match.
Those with moustaches may also face similar problems with epassport gates.
Perhaps an even more unlikely factor that could prevent the machines from recognising you is if you are hungover as this can also alter your face, according to Feel Good Contacts.
Weight loss and weight gain can also affect the way your face looks and hinder recognition.
Other influencing factors include: piercings, glasses, plastic surgery and facial tattoos.
There are now 259 e-passport gates in operation at 14 ports around the UK and juxtaposed control locations.
The gates can be used by travellers aged 18 and over who are travelling using a biometric or ‘chipped’ passport.
Those aged 12 to 17 years old, and who are accompanied by an adult, are also able to use them.
Seven more countries were permitted to use epassport gates this year, it was announced in March.
These include citizens of the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.
However, leaked documents seen by The Guardian show that the waiting time of UK citizens would be impacted by the changes.
This could lead to increasing frustration at UK borders and anger towards staff.
The papers say that “Home Office analysts have examined and modelled the impact of an expanded cohort using the e-passport gates,” reported The Guardian. “The result indicated a small impact on e-passport queue length.
