HID previews face biometrics camera system for airport access control

A new face biometrics camera is coming soon from HID to address a range of travel industry applications.

The Facepod is still in development, but HID Managing Director of Biometrics Vito Fabbrizio tells Biometric Update in an email interview that it is intended for use throughout the travel journey.

HID brought the Facepod to the Passenger Terminal Expo (PTE) in Frankfurt for a sneak preview earlier this year. This week, the company has been showing off the biometric camera at the 2024 ASIAL Security Exhibition and Conference in Sydney. HID also showcased a range of other products, including its Mobile Access solution for issuing credentials to and using them from digital wallets and its Signo Mechanical Keypad Reader 40T, which is designed for use in extreme weather conditions.

The HID Facepod is designed to be deployed for check-ins, bag dropping, pre-security gates, immigration and customs checks, lounge access, retail payments and flight boarding, according to Fabbrizio. It can be used as a standalone unit or in combination with electronic gates from HID parent Assa Abloy or other providers.

Fabbrizio says HID “received much positive feedback on the product design and features,” of the Facepod at PTE this year. While he declined to pinpoint a launch date, he notes that “we are collaborating with strategic partners to complete the product development.”

The camera system brings together HID’s experience developing biometrics hardware and systems that operate at the network edge, according to Fabbrizio, but also the practical requirements of performing facial recognition in busy environments like airports.

“In our approach to designing the Facepod we paid a lot of attention to style and ergonomics and implemented a sophisticated design with a strong technical biometric performance,” he says. “We will continue to add new solutions (software and hardware) to meet the needs of this evolving space.”

The Facepod is powered by HID’s multispectral U.ARE.U Camera with its built-in liveness detection and high-performance matching algorithms, Fabbrizio says. “The U.ARE.U Camera can easily adjust to the demands of the environment while offering capture, matching, identification, verification and liveliness detection at the edge.”

The camera system also has many potential applications beyond the travel industry that HID is exploring.

“The HID Facepod was designed with flexibility in mind and is already attracting interest from other industries such as cruise lines, hospitality, retail, banking and healthcare,” Fabbrizio says.

Article Topics

airports  |  biometrics  |  biometrics at the edge  |  cameras  |  Facepod  |  facial recognition  |  HID  |  hospitality  |  U.are.U