Alaska Airlines wants to scan your eyes, fingerprints instead of your boarding pass

Iris and fingerprint scanners are making their way from Hollywood blockbusters and into the terminals at Alaska Airlines. The Seattle-based airline has quietly rolled out a pilot program to test boarding-pass technology reminiscent of The Minority Report.

Two hundred frequent fliers out of Mineta San Jose International Airport, chosen for its tech-savvy Silicon Valley clientele and partnership with the CLEAR airport security fast lane program, are ditching their paper passes and smartphones at the airport. Instead, individual physical characteristics - think eyes and fingertips - are used to confirm the identity and travel itinerary of passengers.

The technology is built upon Alaska's futuristic fingerprint-scanning system in place at its Board Room lounges. Sandy Stelling, Managing Director of customer research and development for Alaska Airlines told Road Warrior Voices:

We ran our first test in our Board Room airport lounges last fall, and it was so successful with our customers that fingerprint entry is now a regular feature of all four of our Board Rooms. The next step was to test biometric boarding passes and IDs, which is the trial we’re wrapping up right now in San Jose.

According to the airline, Alaska's survey of passengers using the biometrics boarding program found that 80% of users were delighted with the system.

However, some security experts warn that biometric technologies aren't yet quite on par with the high caliber of vetting necessary for a widespread replacement of existing security systems in airports. For one thing, passengers who perform strenuous physical labor for a living, or even those who use wheelchairs as their primary form of mobility, often will have unintentionally altered their fingerprints past the point of recognition.

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And though it seems like a trick ripped from a Bond villain's plot, experts warn that it is entirely possible to wear a facsimile of another person's fingerprints on top of your own to successfully manipulate scanners. At the nearer, more likely end of the spectrum of what could go wrong, greasy or sweaty hands could also cause scanners to malfunction.

Because biometric applications in travel are so cutting edge, a number of technologies in the works could integrate with the burgeoning CLEAR program as it expands. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the Executive Director of UC Berkeley's Sensor and Actuator Center, John Huggins, acknowledges that while current scanners are dupable, cutting-edge fingerprint ultrasound scanning "penetrates the skin and can see pores and blood vessels to see if someone is trying to spoof the fingerprint detector."

But the pilot program has not been without its share of hiccups.

Stelling told the Mercury News:

"If customers go through this process and don't have a boarding pass, once they have gone through the plane door they may not have anything that reminds them where their seat is."

Of course, Stelling also told RWV that the new biometric technology would be to make boarding more seamless, but won't be required.

"Of course, this would simply be an option for customers who are interested in a simpler travel experience, and not something that Alaska would require anyone to participate in. We’ve started with our airport lounges and expanded to test curb-to-seat."