Iris Recognition Immigration System (aptly abbreviated IRIS) terminals have closed at Birmingham and Manchester airports, with Heathrow and Gatwick set to abandon the scheme after the London 2012 Olympics.
As the support contract for IRIS is due to come to an end in March 2011, the scheme operated by Morpho (Sagem until 2010) will be axed in favour of chipped ePassports and e-gates using facial recognition technology.
Although registration is no longer available, those already registered will be able to use IRIS until the terminals are gone.
IRIS was officially launched in 2006 to speed up the immigration control at UK’s busiest airports, and help frequent travellers beat the queues. It uses the unique pattern of the coloured part of the eye to identify people passing through the border. After initial registration, users are directed to a special camera at the IRIS barrier in the immigration arrival hall, which takes a picture of the eye and compares it against a government database.
As of April 2011, the government has spent more than £9 million on the system. Conservative peer Lord Henley has called it a “valuable test bed for the next generation of automation”.
Registration for IRIS is no longer available, and the enrolment rooms at Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester airports have been closed. However, the UK Border Agency website states that those who managed to register will still be able to use IRIS until after the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. There are currently 385,000 passengers on the IRIS database.
IRIS is currently available at the following UK airports: Heathrow terminals one, three, four and five, and Gatwick North.
UK or EEA nationals with a chipped passport can continue to cross the UK border by using automated ePassport gates. The new facial recognition e-gates that will take over from iris scanners to speed up immigration are currently being installed in 15 airport terminals.
ePassport gates will use facial recognition technology to compare faces of UK and EEA passengers to images held in their biometric passports in addition to biographical and security checks.
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Let’s not forget the system was originally introduced in 2004, initially as a pilot. At this time, such use of Iris technology was fairly innovative. That the footprint of the pilot was gradually extended and became a permanent system is indicative that the system was fairly well received. The fact that over 380,000 people have voluntarily enrolled (myself included) makes it difficult to argue that the system is derided.
In my opinion, the turning off of the system at these two locations is more in line with a planned phasing out of this particular solution, for some rather more mundane reasons:
Does turning off the Iris system at Manchester and Birmingham represent a failure of biometrics?
Whenever the IRIS gates have been open, I have been able to successfully use them. However the main disadvantage seems to be that an increasingly large number of people, who are clearly not registered for IRIS, try to use the gates and then fail. They do not realise that it is a different system to the facial recognition gates. The facial recognition gates have never worked for me, and I now refuse to use them.
It is a great shame that the IRIS scheme has been stopped. It provided a useful and viable alternative to the other border controls and is much more likely to be secure.
As an Expat living in London, I registered for the IRIS system in the hope that it would speed up my immigration clearance time. Unfortunately, it only ever worked once for me. When wearing my contacts, it would reject me. And when I would just have my glasses on, I was made to take off my glasses for the scan but then I couldn't actually see well enough to find where I needed to line up my gaze. Major fail for this frequent flyer. Now I go through the UK/EEA line with my husband. It would be great if UK border security would treat permanent residents equal to Europeans rather than the second-class treatment given to non-EEA tourists.
Schiphol has IRIS scan system called Privium, costs 100 euros a year and works every time for me. You need a special card and only need a rescan if your originating document (in my case a British passport) changes.
Privium gates are all over Schiphol (in and out) so no queues. They are simple to use, insert the card, it is validated, "look into the centre of the mirror","identification is complete", walk on.
Even get a comfortable free lounge with drinks and snacks.
Heathrow has failed at almost everything it does (I have been flying on business for 30 years) so not suprising the IRIS scan did not work (if, as someone else pointed out, that is the REAL reason for closure).
I found the IRIS system easy to use, and quick. And it has saved me many hours of queuing.
My wife on the other hand, who wears glasses and only traveled once or twice a year had more problems than I did.
The frustrating part was that many times I arrived back in the UK, it was closed off with a technical fault, which appeared to go unfixed for a while.
Even now, I will use it over the e-passport gates, as the queue is typically shorter.
Those of us that like them try to get through in only 1 command.
I hope they replace the footprint they took up with e-passport gates.