Face scans to start in UK airports

It's like something out of a sci-fi movie: This summer, UK airports (it's not clear precisely which ones) will begin using face scanning technology to verify that travelers are who they say they are.

The scanners will be used to automate some passport checks with the goal of easing congestion in security lines caused by slowpoke humans verifying identity through comparing passport photographs with the face standing before them.

Critics, however, are concerned that the technology will have the opposite effect, that face scanners are so unreliable that delays will actually be longer as travelers are sent to a human-checked line when the machines fail to recognize them. One opponent claims face recognition scanners have a pathetic 40 percent accuracy rate, but independent studies have shown that, under controlled conditions with good lighting, face recognition systems can at least approach the accuracy level of other biometric systems. Face recognition has the advantage that it doesn't require physical contact (as with a fingerprint or hand geometry scan), or ultra-detailed, close-up photography (as with an iris scan). 

Of course, one bad omen is already present: This isn't the UK's first attempt at bringing biometrics into airports. Iris scans used at three major UK airports were put on hold last November, and plans to take fingerprints in Heathrow were also scrapped last month when privacy advocates asked where the fingerprint data collected at the airport would end up.

But the UK loves to experiment with unproven technology. It'll be intriguing to see whether face recognition tech works out... and what that will mean for the thousands of people employed at airports whose job is to look at your ID, look at you, and then scrawl something on your boarding pass, grunting at you to continue along in the line.