Japanese passport holders and mid- to long-term foreign residents can already use automated gates with fingerprint readers if they register their fingerprints and other information. The Ministry of Justice website has been pushing for eligible people to use the gates by highlighting the ease with which users can get through immigration procedures by simply following the instructions on the screen at each booth, and that user registration can be completed on the day of a flight.
The automated fingerprint-scanning gates, which have been implemented at Narita International, Haneda, Chubu Centrair and Kansai International airports, were used by approximately 1.32 million people last year. While that figure was nearly seven times that in 2008, the year after the system was adopted, the user rate is still around 4 percent. A reason for the sluggish growth in the use of automated gates is widespread resistance to providing fingerprints.
That's where facial recognition technology comes in. The system reads facial image data from IC chips embedded in a passport and compares it against a photograph taken at the immigration gate to determine if it is the same person. Its biggest merit is its convenience. No previous registration is necessary, unlike other biometric identification systems that require the registration of fingerprints or images of irises, and facial scanners can even read images taken from some distance. Australia and the U.K. adopted the technology for immigration procedures in 2007 and 2008, respectively.
An advisory panel to the justice minister that is deliberating immigration administration in anticipation of having 25 million foreign visitors to Japan released a midterm report in March 2012 suggesting the use of facial recognition technology as a strategy to increase the number of automated gate users, and recommended a trial.
Some 29,000 people participated in the first trial, which took place in the summer of 2012. In non-error readings -- cases in which the facial recognition system correctly identified the person being photographed as the person in the passport photo -- it took an average of 17.4 seconds between the time passports were scanned and the gates opened. Since immigration screenings conducted by officials are said to take 25 to 30 seconds on average, the reduction in the time the process takes is not significant. Still, when asked if they would use the system if it were implemented, approximately 90 percent of trial participants said they would, or that they would as long as it didn't require a long wait.
One problem with the system, however, is the 17-percent error rate, which means that the system fails to accurately recognize one in every five to six people. While there are numerous reasons for why this happens, the direction in which one's face is turned, brightness and bangs were cited as the top three factors at 34 percent, 18 percent and 13 percent, respectively. The direction in which one's face is tilted and whether or not one has bangs are up to the user, but brightness, which can differ greatly depending on the time, date and location, has a significant impact. Ultimately, equipment performance, environmental factors such as camera location and brightness, and instructions for users on where to position themselves were raised as issues that needed to be addressed, and the decision to implement facial recognition gates was effectively deferred.
The government, however, has promoted Japan as a major tourist destination, with the number of foreign travelers reaching approximately 11.25 million people last year -- surpassing the 10 million mark for the first time. In 2020, the year the Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics are set to take place, the government is aiming to bring in 20 million foreigners.
"Speeding up immigration procedures is an important issue, but increasing the number of immigration officials commensurate with the rising volume of work is not a realistic option," a justice ministry official said. Which is why, starting Aug. 4, another facial recognition gate trial was carried out. Five major electronics manufacturers, who responded to the ministry's call for participants and were selected, took part.
In the latest trial, extra care was taken to prevent issues such as brightness from interfering with the process. The tests also aimed to determine whether the system could accurately identify people from photos taken when they are walking.
A major challenge using facial recognition technology in immigration procedures is that passports can be valid for a decade.
"Determining whether the system will be able to identify faces that have changed over the course of 10 years will be an important part of the trial," said Aiko Omi, an immigration data analyst at the ministry.
Trial participants signed consent forms before their photos were taken at the gate. According to the ministry, the image data collected in the process will be handled in adherence to laws on protection of personal information held by administrative agencies, and will be destroyed five years after the trial results have been analyzed. The electronics manufacturers that participated in the trial say they will destroy the data by the end of the year.
"There is nothing problematic in terms of how we are handling the personal information," said an official at the Immigration Bureau, which is under the jurisdiction of the Justice Ministry.
Koji Ishimura, an information law professor at Hakuoh University and an expert on privacy issues, however, is concerned.
"It's questionable whether the facial image data will be erased for sure. If there are exceptions to the intended use of the data, it's important to get users' consent only after they've been made aware of exemptions. If possible, a monitoring body that includes representatives from the general public should be set up to assess how the system is operated and how complaints are handled," he said. "People who do not want facial recognition technology to be used on them should be guaranteed other options. A slowdown in current immigration procedures should be prevented out of consideration for such people.
"It's easy to fall under the impression that machines are always right, and people have a hard time challenging them. But unless we establish a framework in which people are monitoring systems, and not the other way around, operation of the facial recognition system will not go smoothly."
---
Quelle/Source: Mainichi Daily News, 14.09.2014
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
