South Korean Immigration Puts Biometrics on the Front End
Because of the capture problems that conventional fingerprint imaging systems have had in less than ideal conditions, biometrics has been limited to the backroom, to be used only by employees. Now, with multi-spectral imaging (MSI), which captures fingerprints on the first try every time, organizations are willing to put biometrics out front, being used by their customers.
For instance, foreign visitors entering the Republic of Korea go through an immigration clearance process that features SMARTCORE multi-biometric acquisition stations (MBAS) with Lumidigm MSI sensors. Upon arrival to Korea’s busiest airports and seaports, all foreign visitors proceed to Korea Immigration stations and submit their arrival card and passport to the immigration officer. They then place the index fingers of each hand on the two fingerprint sensors for simultaneous fingerprint verification. The MBAS also photographs the face of each visitor during the transaction.