Biometric passenger identification system

The new biometric passenger identification system, dubbed SmartGate , was deployed at Australia's seventh airport.

SmartGate is an automatic system that allows passengers arriving at Australian international airports to pass through passport control without the participation of airport employees. Its essence is quite simple: it uses data from a biometric passport and face recognition technology to perform customs and immigration checks, which are usually carried out by border service officers.


Initially, the passenger needs to go to a special terminal, put a passport on the reader, accept the agreement, and receive a temporary card, which will be needed for further identification. After that, he goes to the next terminal, directly in front of the waiting room, inserts a card, and for some time looks at the camera at eye level. A few seconds later, after checking (if everything went well), a ticket is issued to him, and a passage to the waiting room opens. Actually, everything, no queues.
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This opportunity so far applies only to citizens of Australia and New Zealand, but it is gradually planned to extend the system to passengers of other nationalities with a biometric passport (ePassport).

Some statistics

Prior to the deployment of this system, it was tested on more than 10 thousand passengers in Sydney and Melbourne between 2002 and 2005. During the reporting year, SmartGate was used more than 900 thousand times at Australian international airports throughout the country.