Fun fact: the passport gates at UK airports appear to be biometric, but aren't. You step into a little gate, place your passport photo page down onto a scanner, and look into a camera for a photograph.
The thing which slows folks down at passport gates (and the reason the best passport control agents don't have a jocular welcoming patter) is the hello/goodbye/talking around the manual "look at your face, look at your passport".
When the gates open at Heathrow and you're allowed through, you'll immediately see a raised bank of desks behind which sit a bunch of officer who are simply manually verifying that the person in the photo appears to be the person on the passport.
I did some digging to make sure that isn't what's happening here (all the articles seem to be very vague about the "biometric" and "facial recognition" part). Here's where I got to:
> Using facial recognition, TVS enables biometric identity verification by transmitting automated queries to locate photos in DHS and U.S. Department of State databases for matching against the unique characteristics of a traveler’s facial features. As designed, this updated capability operates in a virtual, cloud-based infrastructure that can store images temporarily and operate using a wireless network, thereby eliminating the need for the tablets previously used in 2016.[1]
Interesting, I just went through Heathrow, both inbound (US to UK connection to Glasgow, then UK to US connection back). At the in-bound border control, there was a passport scan and photo, then at the gate, that photo was displayed and a second photo was taken. In my case it also was flagged and delayed my boarding while the gate agent manually told the system “he’s ok”. The agent repeatedly had me move around so the system could retake the gate photo, trying to get the gate photo to register as a match to the border control photo. Or, so I believed. Based on your comment, this was all pure theater?
I can only comment on inbound for UK passport holders on the way back into the country. There is no matching to a previous photo: you are scanning your passport and having a photo taken of your face simultaneously, whereupon the box fires up on the screen of a guy behind the desk. (You can actually see their screens as you walk past, with all the photos flashing up for them to approve.)
So, you haven't encountered the photo at the gate? Just at security or border? Weird. Pretty sure the flow for me was...
De-plane in Terminal 5, follow signs to Connections, through border control (non-EU), immediately enter automated passport scan/photo machine, re-enter gate-side Terminal 5. Then, at boarding gate, there was another photo machine which appeared to matching that photo with the one taken back at the border check.
And Inverness had none of the above. Just a normal manual check of passport in the security line. Not surprising, given the size of the airport.
I haven't at gate, no. At Newark a couple months ago they had an automated TSA-type check at security which was capturing fingerprints, but I can't quite remember the specifics (feels like the last few months have been either a state of experiencing, or recovering from, jetlag).
I just need to remember that the check-in agents at small Scottish airports don't arrive until 90 min before the first flight of the day. Even if the first flight is 11am. It was pretty weird getting there at 9 and the BA desk was empty with no lights on. I ran into the same thing at Edinburgh a few years ago, but my habit is 2 hours before flights because I've been screwed by long security lines at IAD in the past.
The thing which slows folks down at passport gates (and the reason the best passport control agents don't have a jocular welcoming patter) is the hello/goodbye/talking around the manual "look at your face, look at your passport".
When the gates open at Heathrow and you're allowed through, you'll immediately see a raised bank of desks behind which sit a bunch of officer who are simply manually verifying that the person in the photo appears to be the person on the passport.
I did some digging to make sure that isn't what's happening here (all the articles seem to be very vague about the "biometric" and "facial recognition" part). Here's where I got to:
> Using facial recognition, TVS enables biometric identity verification by transmitting automated queries to locate photos in DHS and U.S. Department of State databases for matching against the unique characteristics of a traveler’s facial features. As designed, this updated capability operates in a virtual, cloud-based infrastructure that can store images temporarily and operate using a wireless network, thereby eliminating the need for the tablets previously used in 2016.[1]
[1] https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2018-09/O...