INS: Security Is In Hand

<H1> INS: Security Is In Hand</H1><I>New York </I>- International travelers will soon be able to clear Customs simply by placing their hands on an electronic reader.

Long envisioned as the future of security, this (dare we say) foolproof method of identification, called "hand geometrics," will become familiar to travelers when the Immigration and Naturalization Service starts rolling out INFOPASS in August.

The agency will add one U.S. city per month following a recently completed three-year test in which over 160,000 passengers cleared the INS based on the unique shape of their hands and a clean record.

When entering the United States and the INS facility, the traveler simply puts the card and his hand through readers. If clearance is approved, a receipt is printed and the traveler moves to Customs.

The automated system will cut processing time from one to two minutes to less than 30 seconds-and possibly as few as 11, said Ron Hayes, assistant chief inspector for the INS.

"We can't seem to break the floor of 11 seconds for the record," said Hayes, who noted that "of 6,000 checks where an inspector verifies the computer's approval of passenger clearance, we haven't found a single error or counterfeit card."

Tests at Newark, JFK and Toronto will be expanded to Miami in August, followed by Vancouver, Houston, LA and Honolulu.

In order to enroll, travelers must be interviewed by an inspector at the airport's INS facility. The traveler fills out a form that is entered into the INS database and transferred to a credit card-sized card. The traveler then has a hand geometrics template taken, which stores an accurate mathematical representation of the hand.

Hayes said INFOPASS service is free but might require a fee in the future. He also suggested that it is only useful for people who travel frequently and do not have a "look-out" record with the agency.

Hayes said INS initially planned to use fingerprints for indentification, but the airlines suggested hand geometrics. Similar programs in place in Canada, Singapore, Holland and Germany will be compatible with the INS system this year.