Bye bye airport security checks – Dubai all set to welcome face scanning aquariums

Remember the long security checks at the airport? Yeah, the ones that will make you lose interest in flying totally! Dubai is going to get rid of them and instead install face scanning aquariums in place.

As per the reports, Travellers boarding from Dubai airport are no longer required to pass through e-gate anymore. All they have to do now is pass through a virtual aquarium tunnel and the hidden cameras will scan their face or iris, while they are in motion.

So how does it work, you ask? Behind the virtual aquarium tunnel, there are about 80 cameras that will scan your face and match your image with the existing biometric data. So as you reach the end of the tunnel, there will be a message displayed in green saying ‘have a nice trip’. On the other hand, if you are flagged for some reason, a red sign will pop-up indicating further inspection.

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“The fish is a sort of entertainment and something new for the traveller but, at the end of the day, it attracts the vision of the travellers to different corners in the tunnel for the cameras to capture his/her face print,”

“And throughout the tunnel, the passenger does not feel anything, they pass through normally,”

– Major Gen Obaid Al Hameeri, deputy director general of Dubai residency and foreign affairs.

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The tunnel which comes with a high-quality aquarium display is a great relief from the grey walls and the metal detectors. The virtual tunnel doesn’t necessarily stick with just one image rather it keeps displaying a variety of images – deserts to waterfalls to hilly terrains. Thereby keeping the travellers interested.

Walking through #Dubai airport's virtual aquarium security tunnel https://t.co/vAG6CbO8gm pic.twitter.com/XX5jStH6dL

— The National (@TheNationalUAE) October 11, 2017

The idea of a virtual aquarium tunnel came after 18 months of brainstorming and it will be installed by the end of summer 2018 at terminal 3 of Emirates. While the tunnels make their debut at the Emirates’ terminal, they will be installed in other terminals in Dubai as well by 2020.

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With increasing international security threats and the increasing number of travellers in the airport, the face scanning aquarium feature will come in as a great boon to the travel industry and if the reports are to be believed, the entire security process will be over in 15 seconds.

Also Read: Airports in Dubai

It is also interesting to learn that the United States is already testing its face-scanning technology and Australia is planning to replace passports with biometric scans by 2020.

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