ICA: 6mth facial and iris clearance system trial at Changi Airport T4

[BabyBlade]

More changes to come for those boarding/landing flights from Changi Airport Terminal 4. To be more exact, the 6 months trial already started on the 25th of November.

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Singaporeans are soon to experience a much quicker process for clearing the immigration at Changi Terminal 4.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) announced today of a new face and iris scanning system at a designated automated lane in the terminal.

With this new feature, passport and thumb print scans will not be required. This allows for a “contactless” and seamless process for clearing immigration.

This reduces obstacles faced in the traditional method of fingerprint scanning such as verification issues as a result of faded fingerprints due to ageing, dryness or scarring said the authority.

Singaporeans who are six years of age and above and are holding a passport issued after Jan 1, 2018, with IDs beginning with the letter K, are eligible to use this new system.

This is because these citizens have their biometric information already saved onto the national database and hence no prior sign-up is needed.

This new immigration clearance procedure is undergoing a six-month trial, which started on November 25.

It was observed that this contactless process allowed for faster clearance, few seconds quicker than the current process.

At the contactless lane, a traveller will have to walk through two gantries. The first gantry requires the individual to stand on a footprint mat. A scanning machine will show the animated instructions that will capture images of the iris and face.

Upon the opening of that gantry, the next one will feature another machine that will confirm the identity of the individual based on the information produced by the scans before the gantry opens.

Tuas Checkpoint has a similar system but just featuring one machine and two gantries.

While this system is designed for Singaporeans at the moment, ICA has plans for making it useable with foreigners too. It aims to roll out this contactless clearance system for all eligible travellers from 2022.

 

Went to Bangkok recently via AirAsia (Terminal 4) and was actually my first visit to T4. Pleasantly surprised that it is completely self-service and seamless from the check in kiosk, to the printing of boarding pass, baggage tag, bag drop machine. But these are not completely unique as other terminals like T1 if not all, already have have similar automations too.

Even the biometrics used to scan passports are different in T4, albeit a little more inconvenient as we are required to remove our entire passport cover to scan. 

Not forgetting the automated security checks for baggage after clearing immigration. How cool. If I don't travel more often, I'm gonna be even more surprised with all the upgrades of our airports.

 

[Jman888]

"Tuas Checkpoint has a similar system but just featuring one machine and two gantries."

should go try one day.

cos the traffic not so heavy in T4? 

[Kusje]

One more step closer to big brother tracking your every breath.

Edited December 5, 2019 by Kusje

[Playtime]

1 hour ago, Kusje said:

One more step closer to big brother tracking your every breath.

My first thoughts exactly.....

They can play "every breath you take".. as you walk past. 

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by Playtime