The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) branch has issued a call for proposals from start-up and other emerging high technology companies for help in identifying the identities of all travelers departing the U.S. by vehicles at its land ports using facial recognition.
The call was put out through S&T’s fast track acquisition mechanism, called Other Transaction Solicitation (OTS), under its Silicon Valley Innovation Program.
“At land-based POEs (ports of entry), infrastructure is a key inhibitor to track the exit of travelers using biographic or biometric data,” DHS says in the Oct. 20 call. “In addition, the need for uninhibited vehicle traffic flow at land borders is perhaps the greatest challenge for land-border POEs. To avoid having travelers in vehicles stop at border crossings, which could create significant traffic delays, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is working to implement a face biometric entry-exit system in a way that poses the lead impact on travel and trade.”
A DHS official tells HSR that “There are numerous venture capital funds and accelerators in Silicon Valley and other areas that are focused on improving the travel experience.”
Kevin McAleenan, acting commissioner of CBP, said earlier this year that travel into and out of the U.S. continues to grow annually, creating pressure to improve wait times without compromising security. He said CBP needs more technology to strengthen security.
The S&T Directorate initiated its outreach to high-tech startups nearly two years ago to tap into some of the country’s reservoir of novel capabilities and approaches to solving challenges. The OTS mechanism is seen as way to entice these firms to help the government by taking advantage of the rapid ability to award contracts that is a hallmark of this type of acquisition authority.
CBP has already done pilot evaluations of different of biometric modalities for pedestrians entering and exiting the land POE at Otay Mesa, Calif. Those evaluations demonstrated that facial recognition is a biometric that is comfortable and easy for most travellers to use.
For its evaluation of facial recognition of people departing from a land border by vehicle, CBP doesn’t want travelers to exit their vehicle, which means it needs facial recognition quality photos of occupants inside the vehicles to facilitate identity checks.
Exit lanes for vehicles located at the land borders are not currently configured to support his requirement and are subject to extreme environmental factors, such as snow or intense heat depending on the location,” the call says. “CBP desires a stand-off face recognition capability designed to meet this requirement while also minimizing disruption of trade and travel.”
Soon, CBP plans to soon begin another evaluation of facial recognition for biometric exit at a land POE for pedestrians. The pilot will begin in 2018 at select ports on the southwest border and the camera systems will be linked to CBP’s Traveler Verification System, which houses the database of photos the agency is also using for biometric exit evaluations of facial recognition technology at airports.
For one of the airport evaluations, the agency has teamed with JetBlue, which is also using the technology to allow passengers to self-board a daily flight to Aruba from Boston Logan International Airport without using a boarding pass. Colleen Manaher, executive director, Planning, Program Analysis and Evaluation at CBP’s Entry/Exit Transformation group within the Office of Field Operations, says the technology is getting “a perfect match every time.”
CBP in October rolled out facial recognition technology at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to examine its potential for arriving travelers on international flights. Manaher says at a DHS Industry Day in October that the agency was able to “clear a flight in 20 minutes.”
Ultimately, for the airport biometric exit deployments, CBP expects airlines and airports to pay for the camera technology at the departure gates where photos are taken of travellers before they head into the jet way. While airline groups have balked at this notion, Manaher tells HSR that she is gaining traction with some airline that see the benefits of the technology to enhance their own processes.
CBP is looking to widen its biometric technology evaluations and is in discussions with cruise lines for applications in this space, Manaher says.
DHS plans to hold an industry day on Nov. 14 at SRI International’s facilities in Menlo Park, Calif., to discuss the land border biometric exit facial recognition plans.