International travelers cringe when faced with the task of leaving an airport and having to go through the pain of showing your passport. Long lines and sleep deprivation set in and we wish for the day we can just walk out without having to queue up.
Australia may have a highfalutin answer.
The Sydney Morning Herald (h/t Engadget) reports the country is in the initial throes of bringing facial recognition to the forefront of its International immigration and customs solutions as pertains to its Seamless Traveller campaign.
The report paints quite the optimistic endeavor: "The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has sought technology that would abolish incoming passenger cards, remove the need for most passengers to show their passports and replace manned desks with electronic stations and automatic triage."
As you read, the agency is merely looking for the technology every traveler dreams of experiencing. But the experience would be oh-so wonderful.
Essentially, the idea is to have travelers walk through the necessary technologically forward infrastructure, which would allow instant verification of a traveler's identification based on things like biometrics and facial recognition.
Officials, however, are preparing to walk before they run straight into the future. According to Engadget, a trial run will begin at Canberra's airport in July of this year.
As for a more widespread approach, that won't take place until March 2019 when officials hope to have some sort of solution in place at most International airports.
And it's the notion of a universal passport answer that remains the biggest hurdle, but also the one thing the DIBP is most hopeful about procuring.
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As noted, Australia already employs a nationwide solution called SmartGates that allows travelers to electronically scan their passports.
In this case, Australia wants to do one better, allowing its travelers to completely ditch the old way of providing travel documents at this important moment on the itinerary.
Instead, what the country hopes will be 90 percent of the travel population will be able to be verified with facial recognition and other metrics, which will then be checked against saved data.
So instead of lining up to answer a few questions and have your passport checked and re-checked you can just walk on through what we would imagine would be a hypothetical corridor of acceptance.
The Sydney Morning Herald quotes John Coyne, head of border security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, who explains this would allow something quite remarkable as travelers would, "literally just walk out like at a domestic airport."
But don't get too excited, because there isn't a trusty contraption to handle this massive task as of yet.
A spokesperson tells the publication: "The department is asking tenderers to provide innovative solutions to allow arriving travellers to self-process. The department has not therefore defined the specific solution or how it will differ from existing arrivals or departures SmartGates."
Essentially, officials know what they want; they just don't quite know how or what will be that answer.
Still, we love the idea of arriving and not having to waste too much of our precious time queuing up like weary cattle at the passport line.
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