U.K. and Ireland - e-passport success rate

Firstly, IRIS was brilliant in my 'umble opinion.

Secondly, e-passport seems to be absolute rubbish for me and a bunch of others that are usually in front of me. I reckon my success rate is about 10% with it accepting the passport without the "Re-insert passport" message at least once, and overall no more than a 30% or so success rate after the re-insert.

The only good thing is that when it does not work you get shuffled to what almost appears to be a dedicated UKBA passport checker and jump the queue that way.

What are other people's experiences with it ?

Firstly, IRIS was brilliant in my 'umble opinion.

Secondly, e-passport seems to be absolute rubbish for me and a bunch of others that are usually in front of me. I reckon my success rate is about 10% with it accepting the passport without the "Re-insert passport" message at least once, and overall no more than a 30% or so success rate after the re-insert.

The only good thing is that when it does not work you get shuffled to what almost appears to be a dedicated UKBA passport checker and jump the queue that way.

What are other people's experiences with it ?

100% success rate here. I must have been through the gates 15-20 times.

I probably have a weird and instantly recognisable face! :D

Firstly, IRIS was brilliant in my 'umble opinion.

Secondly, e-passport seems to be absolute rubbish for me and a bunch of others that are usually in front of me. I reckon my success rate is about 10% with it accepting the passport without the "Re-insert passport" message at least once, and overall no more than a 30% or so success rate after the re-insert.

The only good thing is that when it does not work you get shuffled to what almost appears to be a dedicated UKBA passport checker and jump the queue that way.

What are other people's experiences with it ?

If you have not seen this, you may want to sign...
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/u-k-ireland/1340060-iris-petition-uk-airports.html

I've never got the bloody thing to work although I don't mind that much because I don't often use it.

I don't have an e-passport yet, but from what I've observed, standing in the non-e queue, the "success rate" is lamentably poor. The other evening, the e-passport queue would have been, at most, a tenth the length of the non-e EU/EEA queue, and yet people that joined the e-passport queue at the same time as I joined my queue hadn't reached teh front by the time I had.

As far as I could see, most people had to have at least two stabs at getting the gate to work, and about 40 per cent of the total (or perhaps more) ended up presenting their passport to a real live person to be processed in the ordinary way. (I did have plenty of time waiting to observe all this...)

Obviously, without some improvements – somehow – the system is not going to be an effective alternative to manual passport controls, especially as more an more people get e-passports as time goes on, even if the number of gates is increased.

Failed for me the three times I've tried to use it when IRIS has been closed. HEL uses similar technology to validate entrants to Schengen, and it works for me every time in a few seconds, so there's some key difference between how UKBA has implemented the technology and its use elsewhere.

The ePassport gates in Australia and New Zealand - which were introduced a couple of years before the UK ones - have always worked perfectly for me.

There's a delay of perhaps 5 seconds while it validates your photo.

From what I've seen, the UK ones appear to be of a fairly similar design, so it's hard to say why there seems to be so much trouble with them.

In the beginning I had a 90% success rate, after that it went progressively downhill. Now, probably around 10% but as I always scan the lines, and invariably the ePassport line is shorter, I go there regardless as I usually get through quicker.

I have a feeling at one point I was marked up for something I don't know what is and now they always require manual verification. I am an EEA/non-EU passport holder.

Has only failed once in 20 times for me over the past year or so.

I'm delighted because, perversely, I never got on with Iris. The enrolment process took forever and I rarely managed to get through the gate successfully.

I'm a happy customer of the e-Gates at both LHR (T1/3/5) and LGW :)

IRIS - 1 rejection
ePassport - barely 50% success rate. They are pretty shite.

IRIS - 1 rejection
ePassport - barely 50% success rate. They are pretty shite.

First time I used my brand new (one day service) ePassport to re-enter the UK and the girl at the desk asks my why my chip isn't registering on her machine. She gives it another couple of swipes and it does eventually register, then looks very carefully at the passport before letting me go.

5/6 success for me - the only failure being the first time and I wouldn't be too surprised if that were my own incompetence.

100% success rate for both me and hubby in every country we've used it.

What are other people's experiences with it ?

Out of the 3 times I've used it (once when it was being used at LTN, which is rare, and twice at LGW) it's worked twice and not worked once.

But as you get sent to a shorter queue to verify manually if it doesn't work than the main queue, it's still a "win" for me. I don't care if verification is automatic or manual, just that I clear immigration more quickly.

It's a shame the data doesn't include fingerprints in a way, they're far easier to verify (and have fewer[1] implications in privacy terms).

[1] Yes, really. You can do facial recognition "on the quiet" via CCTV, once you have the data. You can't do online fingerprint recognition if only one finger's data is stored without the correct finger being placed on something intentionally.

Neil

Used it at EDI over the weekend. Took about 3 goes for the passport to be read - from what I understand it has to access the machine-readable data on the passport to then be able to interact with the NFC data on the chip. However once it had read it to actually let me into the wee booth bit I was through a few seconds after. So the main problem seemed to be the reading of the passport, not the facial recognition bit. Interestingly I left my glasses on (having had them off for the passport photo itself as per the UKBA guidelines) and had not problems in that regard. Anyone else found it hit/miss with getting the passport read in the first place or was it more rejecting you at the next stage?

It's a shame the data doesn't include fingerprints in a way, they're far easier to verify (and have fewer[1] implications in privacy terms).

[1] Yes, really. You can do facial recognition "on the quiet" via CCTV, once you have the data. You can't do online fingerprint recognition if only one finger's data is stored without the correct finger being placed on something intentionally.


If you have a UK passport (or a UK Visa) the UKBA already have your photo in their database. I'm not sure how ePassport gates would make any difference to privacy - unless your advocating that passports should include fingerprint data but not photos?!

It's a shame the data doesn't include fingerprints in a way, they're far easier to verify (and have fewer[1] implications in privacy terms).

[1] Yes, really. You can do facial recognition "on the quiet" via CCTV, once you have the data. You can't do online fingerprint recognition if only one finger's data is stored without the correct finger being placed on something intentionally.

I don't see much of a privacy reduction. You can of course also capture the data to do facial recognition remotely, and pair it to some other refernce you have for the person, or their passport number when you see it.

If you have the person standing in a known position, under known lightling, with multiple cameras trained on them, it is not that dificult, and 3D shape recognition far more secure than simple front on face.

---

Facial recognition bit is the slow bit for me, reading the passport never been a problem.

I find it helps if I try to make my face 'look like' the same exact appearance on passport. I.e. if you have lost/gained weight, suck it in or puff it out.

Privacy ? What on earth is that then ?

Since my first attempt (which was an abject failure), my success rate is 100%

100% for me today at T1.

100% success at LHR T1 maybe a dozen times.

I've had 100% success, but it's slow. I mean, it's even slower than the manual checkers who stare at your photo for 5 seconds, slam your passport into the scanner, wait for 20 seconds while it does nothing in particular, and hand it back with a grunt.

I havent had any problems with it reading my passport. I have had the whole machine breakdown and getting trapped in the bit where is reads my face.

Well don't stick your face in it then. It is supposed to be for your passport. :)

Firstly, IRIS was brilliant in my 'umble opinion.



:eek:

IRIS - As in, takes longer than waiting in a queue for a human to check your passport? I've waited for far too long while someone struggles to understand how to hold the passport on the glass. Then for the same person to no understand where to place their feet on the green painted 'feet' on the floor.

There should be some sort of IQ test before anyone is allowed to use the IRIS system. Or maybe, if you are incapable of using it without assistance, there should be a trap door that opens beneath you.

:eek:

IRIS - As in, takes longer than waiting in a queue for a human to check your passport? I've waited for far too long while someone struggles to understand how to hold the passport on the glass. Then for the same person to no understand where to place their feet on the green painted 'feet' on the floor.

There should be some sort of IQ test before anyone is allowed to use the IRIS system. Or maybe, if you are incapable of using it without assistance, there should be a trap door that opens beneath you.
I'm afraid you're one of the large number of people who has contributed to IRIS's failure by making negative but very ill-informed statements about it :(

IRIS does not read your passport when used, nor have green feet on the floor.

I'm afraid you're one of the large number of people who has contributed to IRIS's failure by making negative but very ill-informed statements about it :(

IRIS does not read your passport when used, nor have green feet on the floor.


Ah yes, I am thinking of the e-passport gates.

I'm assuming IRIS is far more user friendly then?

Ah yes, I am thinking of the e-passport gates.

I'm assuming IRIS is far more user friendly then?Yes from all reports (I sadly missed registering for it by a few months) - the main issue was more folk trying to going through it either unregistered or with ePassports and not working out why it wouldn't let them in. If IRIS refused you then I believe you jumped to the front of the manual check queue.

Exactly. IRIS is just a case of enter, look in the camera (which has a mirror set up do you see yourself), move forward or backward until your eyes fill the eye-shaped ovals, and wait for the machine to say "thank you" and let you on your way.

As above, the issue is unregistered people who either think the government has their iris patterns on file, or mistake them for ePassport gates.