Eight major international airports in Australia will automate traveler processing at departures, with the implementation of self-service Automated Border Control departures SmartGates based on Facial Recognition. The initiative by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS) and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection aims to strengthen security at Australian borders.

As a result of a bid tender procedure, Vision-Box® has been successfully selected as the preferred partner to deliver the solution.

Australian borders face increasing security challenges, as the number of travelers arriving and departing the country continues to grow at a fast pace while the state of alert for possible terror acts has strongly intensified.

Following a national plan to combat terrorist activity, the Australian Government is committed to the modernization of security infrastructure, namely passenger clearance processes, through the use of biometric-based solutions at departures, in order to bolster security measures and help manage increasing traveller volumes.

As an outcome, eight Australian Airports will soon have their processes renovated during the nation-wide roll-out of departures SmartGates between June 2015 and July 2016: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Cairns and Darwin.

The bid tender procedure was preceded by a successful trial at Brisbane International Airport in a partnership with IBM Australia, proving that Vision-Box was the right partner to deliver this large-scale project, which includes the deployment of 92 Automated Border Control SmartGates at Departures Terminals.

vb i-match® ABC eGates are developed by Vision-Box, the industry leader with more than 800 Biometric-based Automated Border Control solutions installed worldwide. The eGates will expedite each traveller?s clearance in just a few seconds, providing a fast and user-friendly experience, while guaranteeing accuracy in the identification of passengers before their departure from Australia.

The process is very fast and intuitive at the eGates: the first step is to present the Electronic Passport —to be automatically authenticated— and the second step is to look at a camera. The face image is captured and matched against the biometric data stored in the document.

While the identity of the traveler is being verified at the departures SmartGate, Border Protection Officers will be monitoring the information in real-time, whether through a stationary border control station or mobile devices, which will display any alerts to facilitate a prompt reaction by the Officers to imminent threats.

Jean-Fran