IDEMIA biometric technology selected by Royal Caribbean to expedite passenger debarkation

IDEMIA, together with Royal Caribbean Cruises and U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced today the expansion of Royal Caribbean’s debarkation process using IDEMIA’s MFace high speed 3D face capture technology. Following successful completion of trials at Cape Liberty in New Jersey and the Port of Miami, the program is now moving into commercial production at these ports.

IDEMIA’s facial recognition technology has enabled the Royal Caribbean passenger debarkation process to be both more secure and significantly faster. IDEMIA’s facial recognition algorithm outperformed all other U.S. government providers’ biometric algorithms in NIST’s most recent Facial Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT).

According to the announcement, the MFace technology by IDEMIA streamlines the process by comparing the facial identities of individuals disembarking with the identities of ticketed passengers who boarded the ship at the start of a cruise, matching against images in CBP’s (CBP) Traveler Verification Service (TVS). No images are stored by Royal Caribbean, CBP or IDEMIA after the trip is completed.

“Facial biometric technology is transforming how we travel by enabling a trusted identity verification,” commented Donnie Scott, senior vp public security for North America at IDEMIA. “The solution we deployed in collaboration with CBP and Royal Caribbean demonstrates how facial recognition can simultaneously improve the customer experience and strengthen the U.S. Entry/Exit processes.”

IDEMIA and Royal Caribbean expect more deployments in other Florida ports this year that each process several million passengers annually.

“We received very positive guest feedback on the enhanced facilitated Customs process powered by facial biometric technology systems as it allows our passengers to seamlessly pass through the CBP inspection process,” said Captain Thomas Hinderhofer, Royal Caribbean’s director of Cape Liberty Cruise Port and Miami Cruise Terminal A. “We look forward to having this solution available in more ports nationwide and continue to lead the change for the industry.”

Research by Oracle has shown that biometrics will play a key role in the hospitality industry. Last Fall the WTTC announced a series of pilots under the its Seamless Traveler Journey initiative that will allow travel and tourism sector representatives to jointly test interconnected biometrics-based technologies in an effort to improve traveler experiences.

Article Topics

biometric exit  |  biometrics  |  CBP  |  facial recognition  |  IDEMIA  |  identity verification