NEWS
A new RFID tag has been designed and its inventors claim it could improve airport security by tracking passengers as they mingle in the departure lounge.
The plan is to issue every passenger with an RFID tag at check-in so human traffic can be monitored around the airport.
Dr Paul Brennan, electrical engineer at University College London, heads up the 'Optag' project. He told silicon.com a prototype RFID tag will be tested in an airport in Hungary next month.
The exact date of an airport rollout of the technology is still unknown but Brennan said if the Hungarian trials are a success and someone takes on the tech, it could arrive in airports within two years.
Brennan said Optag has been designed to improve airport security, with the ability to track the movement of suspicious passengers and bar them from entering restricted areas.
The ability to locate individuals could also aid airports in an evacuation situation, he said, and in finding lost children and passengers who are late to the departure gate.
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Optag is unique from its RFID predecessors - standard RFID devices only have a range of a few centimetres but Optag has a range of 10 to 20 metres and can be located within a radius of one metre, Brennan said.
The Optag project is now nearing completion but there are still some sizeable hurdles to real-world implementation, including working out how to get the tags working in an airport and how to ensure people wear them, as well as allaying concerns over civil liberty infringements, said Brennan.
He added the device is "not intended to know who's doing what, although it might be that security needs to pinpoint certain individuals".
The design of the object set to carry the Optag is still not finalised. Brennan said RFID-tagged wristbands could be used but these can be taken off and swapped between individuals.
A possible option is to use cameras to scan the tag-wearer's face, to check it matches the person given the device, but these could only be used in certain areas of an airport, according to Brennan.
Brennan said the installation of the systems required to run Optag would also be very disruptive to existing airports - but with a new airport, or, for example, Heathrow's T5, installation could occur during construction.
The current tag does not store any data but might incorporate biometric data in the future, Brennan added.
Optag is primarily aimed at improving airport security but Brennan said "anywhere where a large number of people are, this has applications".
Comments
There are 11 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
How Orwellian can you get?
2. Roy Corneloues
If you are talking about tracking passengers as opposed to just people in the public areas of the airport, then simply build the tag in to the boarding card.
This will have a number of advantages over and above a persons location. For example you should simply be able to walk up to a gate and board the plane if your tag is recognised. if not alarm bells sound a you are refused to travel any further, or for purchase of duty free...
The only downside of this of cousre are e-tickets that are printed at home. All problems that can solved but could make travel through an airport much smoother...
Yes I am an optimist!!!
3. Simon
So we'll have tags that are either intrusive and hard to remove (the "You are all criminals until you prove otherwise") approach, or will be easily removed by anyone wanting to subvert the system (like, err, terrorists ?).
And the tags WILL be easy to remove, after all, there will need to be loads of staff able to remove them at the boarding gates, so the tools/techniques will not be hard to come by for those that require them.
As for fire evacuation, well just how often does that happen, and how reliable will the system be in a real fire ?
But nice to see they didn't miss the "Pulease, think about the childrun" plea !
4. anonymous
Why stop at airports? Let's tag everyone in the country starting with Dr Paul Brennan. Or better still, make it a global project. The problem I see is that it will be introduced no matter what the human right issues are. I cannot think of any developed technology (and I am using the term technology rather casualy) that hasn't been used. The other question we have to ask is does it really increase security or is it just another step to passive monitoring people and accumulate information?
5. A S Mills
Dead in the water - As a security 'deterrent' any device such as this RFID tag which can be removed by the wearer and switched to another person is totally useless for 'real' (i.e. terrorist or a released-on-remand prisoner) security purposes. Who is kidding whom, in suggesting that it is 'an answer'?! If it weren't suggested in an aire of seriousness, it would be laughable. This is just yet another technology company trying to make a quick buck from taxpayers for a useless product!
6. anonymous
As AS Mills says 'This is just yet another technology company trying to make a quick buck from taxpayers for a useless product!'
As a non-terrorist, I would have no problem having some sort of readable tag on my boarding card stating my flight/destination but 1. That would be useless against terrorists and 2. You just know that the powers that be couldn't limit themselves to us carrying 'innocent' details on the tags - civil liberties be d***ed - we'll end up with complete id including our credit details and the name of our grandmother's cat on it. Personally, I shall do what I've done since fingerprinting/credit details for US flights came in - take my money elsewhere. I now do not holiday in the States or take any flights that go via the States & I shelved my plans of buying a holiday home in Florida. If enough people go down that route, change will happen.
7. galley slave#41
Another ill thought out idea by those who want to make money out of us.
And who will pay for all this? not those that started all this by pissing off the people living in other countries thats for sure and I ain't gonna pay either so stuff it!
8. anonymous
If they implement this and everyone gets used to using it then anyone untagged becomes invisible and is even more of a threat... Plus, if the legitimacy of your owning the device is never human-checked then security is reduced. Look at chip and PIN... how many machines assume that owning the card and the PIN make it legitimate, how many (London) public transport systems can't check if you're entitled to use the Oyster card you tender?
9. Nick Cole
What another waste of time. RFID a solution looking for a problem to solve.
This will solve security? How will it track those who aren't wearing them or those who have 'borrowed' one from someone else?
Why does NOBODY think things through?
10. anonymous
Why not use the new passports? I've just got my new one and it has a biometric chip and a radio antennae - surely this could be used and people are always going to have a passport on them at the airport.
11. Michael Chamberlain
E-passports are only designed to be read at less than 10 cm from the reader- also the encryption on the chip is linked to the optically scanned MRZ on the data page....all this is to protect your civil liberties!