The airport in Sydney, Australia is the first to implement facial-recognition technology to speed passport processing and tighten security.

The new $1.2 million SmartGate kiosk scans the photographs on passports and electronically compares them to the face of the passport holder. This system aims to catch criminals, terrorists, and illegal entrants that often use false travel documents.

SmartGate will first be used with crew members and will later be expanded to passengers. At this time, because of privacy concerns, the Australian system will not compare the faces or passport images to faces in other databases.

The SmartGate technology proved highly accurate during testing and has peaked the interest of many other countries that are also experimenting with other recognition technologies such as iris scanning and finger print systems.

News Source: Reuters