Queensland begins trials to replace public transport cards with facial recognition

September 29th, 2017

Awake Goy

The future of public transport in Queensland. Photo: Courier Mail

Future public transport commuters in Queensland will be able ‘to use their faces as a ticket to board trains and buses’ soon, after it was announced today that trials have begun to replace the current ‘Go Card’ digital network with facial recognition technology.

Cubic Corporation, the company initially behind the ‘Go Card’, will trial the use of biometric identification technology to enable passengers to pay their fares in a ‘seamless, efficient way’, as card-operated gates would be replaced by machines which scan an individual’s eyes or the unique pattern of veins in the palm of their hand.

The announcement has concerned many privacy advocate groups across Australia, who have called for further details on the new project, including safeguards for individual data and personal security, as the transport industry becomes the latest government branch to announce radial overhauls towards biometric identification technology.

BIOMETRIC AUSTRALIA:

It has been revealed that the biometric system will begin based on a “one transport account” model, allowing passengers to use credit or debit cards, smartphones, Apple watches and other devices to pay for trains via Bluetooth recognition, with the later stages of the project to include a shift to facial or palm recognition.

The next generation system is yet another example of Australia’s rapidly increasing shift towards biometric identification technology, following a number of announcements in industries such as schools, air travel, and hotels to move towards facial recognition in the near future.

It was announced earlier in the year that all passports in Australia will be replaced with facial recognition in a move towards automated travel by 2020, and that Australian schools are now implementing biometric identification technology to keep records of students.

Furthermore, Queensland’s Privacy Commissioner slammed plans to introduce facial recognition systems at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games as an “unprecedented example of predictive policing, with parallels perhaps only in China and Russia.”

In the latest announcement, scanners would trigger red lights or vibrating floor pads when someone has failed to pay and security could be on hand at hot spots to nab would-be fare dodgers.

So far, ‘more than a billion trips’ on London’s Underground and rail system have been paid using contactless methods, with whatever payment form passengers used linked back to a personal ID token.

TRIAL TO REPLACE ‘GO CARDS’:

The reality of facial recognition systems in the public transport sector is only a few years away from Queensland, and if successful in train stations, transport departments will expand the prepaid contactless payment system to buses, ferries and light rail, according to Cubic Corporation.

Chris Bax, the Vice President of Intelligent Transport Systems Global Strategy for Cubic Corporation, spoke with the media this afternoon about the new trials:

“We are trialling it in the lab at the moment. We have the current system where people tap a smart card down to as quick as we’re going to get it.

As our cities become busier and busier, we have to look at how we can get people through stations quicker. One way is to look at whether we need a gate that has to open.

Biometric technology still has a way to go but it is developing quickly. And there are privacy issues to be worked through.”

We are revolutionising transport payment systems to make them simple.”

Cubic is one of three international companies vying for the TransLink contract to replace the current Go Card from 2019.

A real-world trial is planned within the next year, most likely in the UK, before being rolled out in cities around the world.

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RELATED CONTENT:

Facial recognition to see the end of Queensland’s ‘Go Card’: https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/afl/facial-recognition-to-see-the-end-of-queensland

Facial recognition to replace passports in radical security overhaul at Australian airports: https://tottnews.com/2017/01/22/facial-recognition-australian-airports/

Commonwealth Games – QLD Privacy Commissioner slams facial recognition plans as ‘unprecedented’: https://tottnews.com/2017/06/18/commonwealth-games-2018-privacy/

Australian schools are now implementing biometric identification technology: https://tottnews.com/2017/01/06/australian-school-biometrics/

For more articles on biometric identification technology, visit our intelligence archive: https://tottnews.com/category/intelligence/

Cubic Corporations trials facial recognition technology which could replace your public transport Go Card: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/cubic-corporation-trials-facial-recognition-technology-which-could-replace-your-public-transport-go-card