Just received this email regarding new NEXUS kiosks. They will first appear in Ottawa.


Looks like the days of not having your NEXUS card on you are over. It will be needed to use the kiosk.

I think you were always supposed to have it with you anyway. But what gets me is they start out by referring to "more efficient service". How is it more efficient to add the extra step of getting out the card and inserting it into the machine?

I would guess it's more efficient to look up your record with the card and then perform the iris match, vs scanning your iris and comparing that to the many on file.

I hope "phase 2" is entering a customs declaration too like with GE so the whole process approaches paperless!

Link to the new kiosk information: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/prog/nexu...erien-eng.html

It is, but we've seen an endless number of posts over the years about FTers tempting fate and seeing whether or not they'll be ok without the card.

I just wish they'd get GE machines and dump the retina process. Such a pain to move forward, to the side, back, etc.

Maybe I'm a jerk, but I like when people tempt fate like that and hope they get caught and removed from the process. The less people in the NEXUS program, the quicker it is for me to get where I need to go! If they want to be as stupid as to use it without the card which is a clear violation of the program, then they'll get what they deserve.

On a side note, Flyquiet should be pleased with the new colored circles for those with hearing impairments.

Why? the biometrics are perfectly capable of uniquely identifying you, what do you need the card for?

I just wish they'd ditch the declaration card, save some trees.

Bingo. It's similar to the requirement of having your frequent flyer card with you to enter a lounge. Why is it necessary when my boarding pass and frequent flyer number are perfectly capable of uniquely identifying me?

What I'm wondering, and this is a bit of a stretch, but is it possible the biometric data is stored within the card? <uch like your picture is written to the chip inside your ePassport, and thus allowing the NEXUS kiosk to operate even if it's disconnected from some network?

I realize this would have been some serious planning future planning on the government's part, but who knows.

I agree though that in it's current form, the card really doesn't do much that your eyes can't. I only said what I said earlier because people break the rules, even if they seem silly.

I can't find anything official, but this site suggests that "this [biometric data] is stored on your Nexus card along with the other details provided on your application form." (Scroll down to "What is biometric data?")

To be entirely honest, I'm not sure I like the idea of having all that data on the card. I always figured it was some sort of unique identifier that associated the cardholder with the biometric data in some secure database...

My eye doctor gets to see my retina, thankfully not the Nexus machine. Your iris is much more accessible. The new Nexus machines are designed to make the scan more easily as it has an indicator for when you are in the right place "8. Look into the mirror, moving slightly forward or backward until you see the circle centered between your eyes change from orange to green;"

That is a bit alarming. If it's anything like the information in the ePassport, it's not exactly fool proof either, given that the keys are your passport number, date of birth, and expiry date.

I'm just thinking this through though.. If someone does their interview at an office without an iris scan, they'll still be mailed a card. I'm starting to doubt my original post.

I seriously doubt the iris scan info is on the card - that would be silly to do, from a security standpoint. These cards are meant to be read at a distance of about 5 feet (at land crossings), so I would expect them to have a higher Tx power capability than the ePassports, which would be generally read at or close to zero distance. And the land crossings have no need for the iris scan data.

Thus the shielding sleeve we are supplied with our cards. I'm not a tin foil hat kind of guy, and I use my sleeve since I carry my NEXUS card in my wallet at all times.

I would expect all iris scan data is on a secured NEXUS mothership server somewhere (in Canada, thus the difficulty in getting an iris scan on US soil). I further guess that the iris scan data is sent from the kiosk when read, and the reply from the mothership is the identity info for the person whose iris scan matches.

That likely requires quite a bit of processing power - comparing a random/unknown iris scan until a match is found. Lots of bits in that iris scan data, I think.

More speculation from me: Reading the card in the new kiosks triggers a query to the mothership using the identity data from the card, and the response is the iris scan data for that person. The unique identifier can be as simple as our PASS ID (along with a checksum of some sort), which has many fewer bits than an iris scan.

Once the kiosk has local iris scan data this would allow the kiosk perform the iris scan matching locally. This schema would require significantly less CPU cycles on the query side and could allow multiple retries at the kiosk (for poor or non-matching scans) without having to trigger a new query to the mothership.

Or, at least this is how I would do it if I designed the system's block diagram. It has been over 10 years since grad school, so I'm a bit out of practice on the computer science involved.

It would also be difficult to do for people who got their cards before they had their iris scans, like me; that would require the cards to be rewritable, which is really unlikely from a security standpoint.

Based on the last few posts and the fact that the cards are issued in the US, maybe the only biometric data embedded are the fingerprints and photo. Makes me feel a little better...

I understand inserting the card means now instead of reading irises and searching ALL the stored iris data to find a match they now just have to compare the current irises with the scan already stored for THAT card. Should be much faster, but still the hokey pokey of moving your whole self in, your whole self out, and shake it all about. I did NOT know the circles change colour for feedback, though, and that is GREAT news! I'm getting better at it, but it's really guesswork + interpretive dancing and hoping it likes something I did in the routine.