Ensuring the provenance of passengers at a transportation facility

• US 20080122578A1
• Filed: 06/27/2007
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EyeLock LLC (VOXX International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Eyelock Corporation (VOXX International Corporation)
• Inventors: Hoyos, Hector T., Hanna, Keith J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,604,901 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.52
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition

Abstract

The provenance of passengers intending to depart on a vehicle from a transportation facility, is ensured by providing biometric reading devices at both a check-in station and a departure area station of the facility. The name and/or other information concerning a passenger arriving at the facility is also entered for assessment into a background check system. A biometric template of the passenger is acquired by the reading device at the check-in station and forwarded to the departure area station. When the passenger appears at the latter station, a second biometric template is acquired by the reading device there. The second template is compared with each of a number of templates that were forwarded from the check-in station. If no match exists, or if the background check system returns an unsatisfactory assessment, the passenger is refused boarding onto the vehicle.

Claims

1. A process for ensuring the provenance of passengers at a transportation facility, comprising:

providing a first biometric reading device at a first station associated with a check-in area of the transportation facility;

providing a second biometric reading device at a second station associated with a departure or boarding area of the facility;

acquiring a first biometric template of a given passenger arriving at the check-in area using the first reading device;

entering a name or other information corresponding to the given passenger into a background check system;

forwarding the acquired first biometric template from the first station to the second station;

acquiring a second biometric template of the given passenger using the second reading device when the passenger appears at the second station associated with the departure or boarding area;

comparing the second biometric template with each of a number of biometric templates forwarded to the second station from the first station and corresponding to all passengers that have checked in for departure on the same vehicle as the given passenger; and

determining whether or not a match exists between the second biometric template and one of the biometric templates forwarded to the second station from the first station.

2. The process of claim 1, including comparing the first biometric template acquired at the first station with a preexisting template obtained previously for the given passenger and stored in an image database.