globalste

Has anyone ever seen the IRIS working recently?

Came into Gatwick yesterday from AMS and passport control was like the village of the damned, full of holiday makers even with every desk open.

I thought i could queue dodge but the usual IRIS closed sign was up

globalste

have posted my complaint here

[url]http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/contact/[url]

NickB

Used IRIS at LGW N without problems in mid-August. Haven't been through it more recently, though.

Frequentflyer99

Three of us used it at LGW N yesterday at 18.00. It was slow and took multiple attempts, but it did work fine for all 3 of us in the end. I was actually impressed with the large overhead sign pointing to it, that I had certainly never noticed before.

OPebble

Last time I went through in July the screen that you peer into was so dirty, I couldn't see my reflection or the two rings.

Perhaps that's why they've been U/S for so long, they can't find anyone whose job it is to clean them!

sunrisegirl

I last used it in July and was the only one to do so at the time of my arrival. There were no problems with it then.

We seldom pass it in Immigration to see whether it's working or not but when I saw it about a week or so ago it was open and working fine.

They are getting a lot more registrations at LGW N for IRIS so I can't imagine they would be shutting it down permanently.

London Dude

I used IRIS at LGW North last Friday Aug 29 morning and thus managed to skip the very long UK/EU immigration queue.

globalste

got my response from IRIS below. I wonder what "normal parameters" are and if the "crossings" are measured per month etc? To me, they should be monitoring mean time between failures or something that shows downtime...

Dear Globalste,

Your enquiry dated 3rd September 2008 refers.

Usage records of the Iris barriers at the Gatwick North terminal indicate that the Iris facility is operating within normal parameters and that the number of "crossing" (i.e. the number of times the barriers are activated) are at expected levels. If you are able to provide further details as to the precise times and frequencies when you have been unable to use the Iris facilities at this terminal the local managers may be able investigate your experiences further.



Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.





UK Border Agency

The Iris Team.

B747-437B

Official word from UKBA today to the LGW AOC is that IRIS will be discontinued in the medium-term future (2-3 years). The plan is to institute a new technology of "Auto Clearance Portals" that will allow RFID based examination. These will be trialled initially at Stansted and Manchester prior to being rolled out at other airports.

sl1ppy

It was working at LGW last night, though the queue was longer for IRIS than for the normal immigration desks.

pennineuk

I blame Mrs P...she used it ahead of me on Saturday, returning from BOD, and as she exited, the doors went mad, opening and closing. After a minute or two of this, it let me in, but wouldn't work. Eventually it let me out back into "no man's land" and I had to go via the normal desks. IRIS then went out of service.

lorraflites

Sounds like the system was made by the same people who made oyster cards

csdf

So we have to get RFID's implanted under the skin? Otherwise, it would just be a piece of ID (say, a passport) being scanned.

Teece

Isn't this being trialled at MAN already? The RFID in your passport is used to pull the copy of the photo it stores, and then feature-recognition is used to see if it's you by comparing against a photo that gets taken.

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articl...s-security.htm

csdf

Though of course, all that really proves is that the holder of the passport has the same face as that stored in the RFID chip. It doesn't say anything at all about who you actually are.