Your face will become your boarding pass at Delhi airport from September 6. Passengers travelling on Vistara's domestic flights will be able to avail this facility under a pilot project on biometric facial recognition at the airport.

CNBC-TV18 had reported in October 2018 that in an effort to make the passengers’ face their boarding pass, the union civil aviation ministry has formulated a common set of standards to enable facial recognition technology for biometric-based boarding under its Digi Yatra initiative.

Part of Government’s Digi Yatra initiative, the facility would be officially launched at Terminal 3 and other terminals of Delhi airport as well after successful completion of the trial.

The trial run is valid for a period of three months and participation in it is purely voluntary.

"Participation in the trials is purely voluntary and at discretion of the passengers. A suitable consent form will be signed by the passengers. This trial will run for 3 months. Subsequent roll-out plans will be made," a Delhi airport spokesperson said.

Under this, passengers' entry would be automatically processed based on facial recognition system at all check points including airport entry, entry in to Security Checks, and aircraft boarding.

The airport has taken technical and software support from Vision Box, a Lisbon-based technology company and the airport has claimed that this solution is in compliant with the guidelines of Privacy-by-Design.

"As part of the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s “Digi Yatra” policy, which has been modelled in consultation with Airports Authority of India and key private airports of India, the trial will give an end-to-end solution to the passengers to understand the seamless flow of process," the airport said.

Here is how the system will work:

1 .Passenger with valid flight tickets and government ID proofs will be enrolled at the registration kiosk.

2. Facial details of the passenger will be captured by the camera. Simultaneously, the documents provided by the passenger will be validated by a CISF personnel present at the kiosk.

3. The CISF personnel will check the applicant’s ID proof and confirm on the system. Subsequently, the passenger can approach the dedicated departure e-gate, which is fitted with facial recognition cameras.

4. The e-gates will open automatically after the facial recognition process is completed. The passenger can then proceed towards the check-in counters to drop their bags.

5. If they are not carrying any bags, they can head straight to security screening, where the facial recognition cameras are installed.

6. Once the passenger clears the security screening formality, the passenger can go and board flight through the dedicated boarding e-gates.

7. These gates too open automatically after the camera recognizes the passenger’s registered face.

"During the trial period, the biometric details will be stored temporarily only to enable the departure process. As soon as the flight departs, the data of the registered passengers will be deleted. There will be no storage of the biometric details by the Airport," the airport said in a statement.

Once the complete “Digi Yatra” platform comes into existence, it will expedite the boarding process by facilitating one-time registration by the passengers, the airport added.

First Published:Sept 5, 2019 6:31 PM IST