TSA Is Rolling Out A New Facial Recognition Technology To Check IDs At Airports Across The Country

© Transportation Security Administration A passenger enters the device to scan their ID card, and the device takes a photo of the passenger and matches it with the photo on the ID card to automatically verify that the passenger is eligible to fly. airport that day and whether the document is valid. Traffic Safety Authority

• TSA's new technology takes a real-time photo of a passenger and matches it to a scanned ID.
• It increases identity verification efficiency and speeds up verification by reducing human interaction.
• A new certificate authentication technology was introduced in 2022 and is called CAT-2.

New facial recognition technology automatically compares passengers' real-time photos to their IDs at Baltimore-Washington/Thurgood Marshall International Airport.

According to a recent press release, the Transportation Security Administration has begun deploying 36 new technologies to block credential authentication at airports.

The passenger enters their ID into the device to be scanned, and the device takes a photo of the passenger and matches it with the photo on the ID, which automatically checks if they are scheduled to leave the airport that day and if the document is valid. The device has a library of 2500+ kinds of ID for reference and photos are not saved.

The new technology, dubbed CAT-2, "expands the ability to detect counterfeit IDs such as driver's licenses and passports during security screening and improves efficiency by automatically verifying passenger identification," said Christopher Murgia, director of federal security at TSA. . "This will ensure that we know who is boarding the flight," the Maryland press release said.

In other words, passengers don't have to hand their boarding passes to TSA agents for security while the airline's check-in process continues as usual.

If someone doesn't want their picture taken, they can undergo a standard identity check with a TSA agent, a TSA spokesman previously told Insider.

TSA began using the technology in 2022, and similar devices are in use at Denver International Airport and Salt Lake City International Airport, among others.

Air Canada has launched a facial recognition pilot program to reduce wait times