ATLANTA — As millions of Americans head out for Thanksgiving, travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport may notice a faster screening process thanks to facial recognition technology.
Hartsfield-Jackson was one of the first airports in the country to test out facial scanning, and the technology is now used at most major airports nationwide. Computer science professor Sheldon Jacobson says the system is designed to make security more efficient, and he believes it’s only the beginning.
“This really is a pathway for a new paradigm in airport security where one day some people may not even require any physical screening,” Jacobson said. “That is the future of airport security.”
Jacobson says the technology is perfectly safe and not designed for surveillance. Instead, its purpose is to verify that travelers are who they claim to be.
“The negatives just aren’t there because this is not about surveillance,” he said. “This is about making sure you are the person you claim to be.”
The photo taken at the checkpoint lasts only a few seconds. “It lasts approximately 3 or 4 seconds until the next person comes along and has their picture taken; there is no storage of the photo,” Jacobson explained.
According to Jacobson, facial recognition saves two to four seconds per passenger, a small amount of time that becomes significant when multiplied across tens of thousands of travelers passing through for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The technology has already expanded to most major airports, and officials hope to introduce it at smaller regional airports as well. Jacobson believes facial recognition will continue to reshape security nationwide and may eventually allow some travelers to bypass physical screening altogether.
He says the combination of increased speed and enhanced security is why he believes this is “the future of airport security.”
WSB Radio’s Sabrina Cupit contributed to this story.