[anonymouscaller]

New technology in the airport is incredibly scary. I recently flew between the United States and Canada and it is mind boggling how trivial passports are already becoming. I began by looking into a camera on a kiosk, where as soon as my face was recognized, I walked up to the CBP officer and he verified my identify with a quick look at my passport and ticket. I don't see the passport lasting much longer, at last in the US, Canada, and Europe.

[eszed]

Singapore is even further ahead, with no human in the (regular) loop at all. I walked up to the first barrier, it scanned my face and opened. My name appeared on the screen inside, before I inserted my passport. Then the system "thought" about it for a few seconds, and then the second barrier opened.

I appreciated the complete lack of a passport line (going and coming), but got squicked out about the heuristics the system (might) run through before it let me through.

That's where all of this is headed, though.

[gruez]

>but got squicked out about the heuristics the system (might) run through before it let me through.

I think you're overestimating how sophisticated the system is. Most online check-in processes require you to input your passport details. In-person check-in probably results in the gate agent doing something similar. If the arrival airport has this information, it's pretty easy to look up the corresponding face on file (that you provided when you applied for a passport), and use that to generate a list of faces you need to match against. From there, it's only a matter of matching a given face to a face in that set. Moreover, given that arrivals are staggered, that set is going to be relatively small. A wide-body aircraft holds around 300 passengers. If 3 of them arrive at the same time, to the same passport control point, that's only around 1000 faces to match against. That's far easier to do than trying to match against all faces in the entire country, for instance.

[refurb]

Singapore has moved to no passport entry for many countries. As in you don't need to show your passport at all.

https://www.ica.gov.sg/news-and-publications/newsroom/media-...

[whimsicalism]

Most of the EU is no human in the loop as well if you are a Schengen-area citizen

[matwood]

ATL has this in parts for domestic flights if you're eligible for 'Digital ID'. Passport control in the US is still for the most part way behind other countries.

[macleginn]

When flying into Toronto last year, I filled in my rudimentary customs declaration on the machine and then was waved through right out. Not only did I not interact with a border officer, I did not pass any kind of e-gate either.

[Klonoar]

You can opt out of the facial recognition in many cases. I do.