Tampa Airport Piloting Face Recognition for International Flights
Tampa International Airport in late June began a 30-day pilot evaluation of facial recognition technology at three international departure gates to verify foreign nationals are leaving the U.S. in compliance with their visa terms. The airport is trialing camera systems from three separate vendors before making a selection to install the systems for all of its outbound international flights. The airport says the biometric face technology replaces the need for a passenger to show his or her passport at the gate. “This will make the boarding process faster, and eventually, could be used for inbound flights as well,” says Danny Glennon, the airport’s Guest Services Director. “We can’t wait to see the results.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection is working with airlines and airports to roll out the face recognition technology for all outbound international flights. CBP is providing the back-end face matching software.
Private Equity Firm Acorn Growth Acquires Counter-Drone Company Black Sage
Acorn Growth Companies has acquired Black Sage Technologies, a company focused on developing, integrating and deploying counter-unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for defense, government and civil applications. Acorn said that Black Sage has deployed its C-UAS solutions for to protect fixed-sites, critical infrastructure and commercial event airspace. On its website, Idaho-based Black Sage said its customers include the Air Force, Navy, NASA, and the Departments of Homeland Security and State. Other customers include aerospace and defense prime contractors, and allied military and government customers in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Acorn said. Black Sage says its UASX solution uses automatic target classification, video tracking and threat prioritization to automate the C-UAS detect, identify, defeat process around the clock. Terms of the deal were not included. In June, Raytheon [RTN] announced a teaming arrangement with Black Sage to provide an integrated solution to mitigate threats from drones for civil, critical infrastructure and military applications worldwide.
Rigaku, DetectaChem Complete Testing of Trace Explosive Detection System with TSA
Rigaku Analytical Devices, Inc. and DetectaChem, Inc. have completed testing of their integrated handheld trace and bulk explosive detection system that combines Raman analyzers with automated colorimetric solutions with the Transportation Security Administration, showcasing the companies’ next-generation alarm resolution and chemical analysis solution. The testing with TSA’s Innovation Task Force was done at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Reagan Washington National Airport, Dulles International Airport, and the TSA Transportation Security Operations Center. “Rigaku and DetectaChem have joined forces to integrate, in a single device, two high performance threat detection and identification technologies,” says Bree Allen, president of Rigaku. Rigaku is based in Massachusetts and DetectaChem in Texas.
Norwegian Air Using Vision-Box Biometric Boarding Platform at LAX
Vision-Box says that Norwegian Air has begun using the company’s facial recognition boarding solution for travelers departing on flights from Los Angeles International Airport to Barcelona. The company says that the eGate solution allows travelers to go paperless at the departure gate. Norwegian Air is the first low-cost long-haul airline that has introduced the facial recognition solution, Vision-Box says. The airline is the 10th carrier to adopt the contactless biometric self-boarding solution at LAX. “We are very pleased to have Norwegian Air and its passengers benefit from Vision-Box biometric boarding platform at LAX, enjoying a faster and safer travel experience,” says Miguel Leitmann, global CEO and founder of Vision-Box. “This is yet another milestone that testifies to how biometrics is gaining traction to become the new normal.” The facial recognition system is part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Biometric Exit system, which LAX has been trialing since 2017. The Vision-Box solution is based on its Traveler Flow orchestration platform that allows for quick and secure data exchange.
DHS S&T Labs Test ETDs for First Responders
The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate completed a two-phase testing program of explosives trace detectors (ETDs) to assess usability and accuracy for first responders. Phase one of the testing was done at S&T’s Transportation Security Laboratory that identified some deficiencies with current detectors sand resulted in discussions between vendors and users about improving detection capabilities. The second phase was done by the National Urban Security Technology Laboratory that compared five handheld ETDs in an operationally oriented assessment under the System Assessment and Validation for Emergency Responders (SAVER) program. The assessment was done with the help of TSL and first responders. “This collaboration between TSL and NUSTL to support our first responders was successful because it brought together the special expertise of both S&T labs: NUSTL’s proven operational assessment expertise and TSL’s recognized ability to evaluate vendor performance claims,” says Claudia Dengler, TSL principal investigator. “The combined expertise of NUSTL and TSL provided valuable insight to the first responders about the real functionality and detection capabilities of a number of handheld trace explosive detection equipment.” The vendors and their systems included: Bruker Detection (RoadRunner); FLIR Systems [FLIR] (Fido X3); OSI Systems [OSIS] Rapiscan Systems (Detectra HX); Rapiscan (MobileTrace); and Smiths Detection (Sabre 5000).
U.S., Canada Begin Phase III of Entry/Exit Information System
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Canada Border Services Agency (CSBA) have begun Phase III of the Entry/Exit information system under the Beyond the Border Action Plan that was initiated in 2012. The third phase of the program expands the exchange of data between the two countries on third country national and legal residents to include U.S. and Canadian citizens. The information is shared at all common land ports between the two countries. CBP and CSBA are exchanging biographic data, travel documents and other border crossing information collected from individuals traveling between the countries at land ports of entry, giving both governments greater situational awareness so that the record of a traveler’s entry into one country can establish a record of exit from the other country. These records will help identify people that overstay their lawful period of admission, monitor the departure of persons subject to removal orders, and verify that residency requirements are being met by applicants for continued eligibility in immigration programs.
House Approves Amendment for Cyber Pilot Program to Protect Electric Grids
The House this month adopted an amendment that would establish a pilot program aimed at discovering potential cyber security vulnerabilities to the nation’s electric grids and test technologies to protect systems from cyber-attacks. The amendment by Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) and co-sponsored by Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) was attached to the Intelligence Authorization Act (H.R. 3494) that passed the House July 17. The Senate already passed a similar provision in its version of the intelligence bill. The provision establishes a working group of government agencies, the energy industry and other experts to evaluate technology solutions proposed by the two-year pilot program and directs the Department of Energy to report on the results of the program. “A sophisticated cyber-attack could have disastrous consequences on the public health, safety, and economic security of all Americans,” says Ruppersberger. “We can’t wait any longer to address the vulnerabilities we inherently create when we rely on complicated digital software systems for everyday basics like electricity and running water. This measure will help us both discover security gaps in our energy grid and keep an eye on emerging threats that could disrupt electricity generation or even cost lives.” Ruppersberger says his amendment was inspired by Russia’s 2015 cyber-attack on the Ukrainian electric grid.