Evaluation of Biometric Technologies for Access Control at Transportation Facilities and Border Crossings

To ensure that only authorized individuals–-legitimate workers, travelers, and visitors–-enter a transportation facility or border crossing, their identities must be ascertained. Because manual procedures are time-consuming, resource intensive, and vulnerable to human error and manipulation, the use of biometric technologies should be considered. This paper discusses several biometric technologies–-fingerprint recognition, iris recognition, facial recognition, and hand geometry–-and assesses their feasibility for use in access control at transportation facilities and border crossings. The advantages and disadvantages of the technologies are provided, as are cost, accuracy, and other performance data. Potential privacy and data issues are also discussed.