Think Like a Startup: Biometric Bypass
Share
APEX Insight: Facebook, Airbnb, Uber. These international companies, once startups, are transforming the way we travel. Airlines have taken note, fostering that entrepreneurial spirit in aviation. In this section of the multipart feature, we look at Scandinavian Airlines’ vision for passenger identity checks of the future.
Inaugurated less than a year ago, Scandinavian Airlines’ SAS Lab has already made headlines for more than a couple of noteworthy experiments, from applying artificial intelligence for frictionless flight bookings to expanding horizons with virtual reality. But by far, the biggest early breakthroughs within the lab have focused on expediting the authentication process.
In collaboration with a biometric company based in Silicon Valley, SAS Lab has been exploring a palm-image-scanning boarding solution. Not to be confused with fortune-telling, biometric palm readers use infrared light to detect blood vessels and vein patterns, and are touted for being significantly more secure than fingerprint scanning. “If fully implemented, passengers could go through boarding gates with just a palm scan,” says Massimo Pascotto, head of SAS Lab. Pascotto sees palm scanning as one of the most viable biometric validation technologies, noting that the solution offers higher levels of security and allows for contactless recognition.
“If fully implemented, passengers could go through boarding gates with just a palm scan.” €” Massimo Pascotto, SAS Lab
SAS Lab has also tested breezier checkpoint validations with wearables such as microchip-implanted rings and wristbands. Wearing the smart identifiers, travelers would be able to pass through security, gain access to lounges and board their flights all with a flash of their airline-branded bling.
Taking paperless and contactless authentication to its deepest level, the lab even experimented with the idea of microchip implants. In January last year, Andreas Sjöström, one of the lab’s digital consultants, injected a near-field communication chip in his hand and boarded his flight with a mere wave.
Sjöström demonstrated that embedded IDs work in practice, but in theory, the idea of implanted microchips would likely get under flyers’ skin, before they can even get under flyers’ skin, so to speak. “We did it just to show that a passenger can go through all the airport procedures and board a plane without carrying any devices at all,” Pascotto says.
“Think Like a Startup” was originally published in the 7.1 February/March issue of APEX Experience magazine.