Skift Take
Vendors are getting creative with pandemic-related services, like the following: Passport control via facial recognition. Contactless elevators. Food-ordering without needing an app. Luggage disinfection via ultraviolet light. Mask-detecting robots.
Airports and railway operators worldwide are turning to contactless technology from vendors and startups to help them safely open back up and accept full volumes of visitors during the coronavirus pandemic.
Exhibit A: Eurostar, the high-speed rail operator in Europe, said on June 17 that it will adopt facial recognition technology as an alternative for passengers who want to check in and board without the physical hand-off of passports. It plans to roll out contactless boarding next year on its route between the UK and France, followed by the rest of its European network of routes.
Eurostar will scan a passenger's face on arrival at a rail station to match it to a photo the passenger uploaded from a smartphone in advance of the trip. The company will use tech from iProov, a biometric authentication business.
It's voluntary to take part, but some travelers may prefer to use the face-scanning to avoid interpersonal interactions for ticket checks and passport control.
The vendor claims the process checks that a user is a real person who is "authenticating" at a precise moment, rather than a photo, video, or mask that criminals might fake.
Touchless Tech at Airports
Airport adoption of touchless tech has sped up, as a frightened world craves keeping a safe distance between workers and
