In the continuous effort to protect citizens from national and international threats, new technologies are being developed. And what’s one of the most recent developments? A way to track and monitor all airport passengers. I’ll give you a hint, it doesn’t have to do with cameras either…

“The inventors of a new monitoring system that uses RFID tags claim it could improve airport security by tracking passengers as they mingle in the departure lounge.

The plan is to issue an RFID (radio frequency identification) tag to every passenger at check-in so human traffic can be monitored throughout the airport via transponders and video cameras.

Paul Brennan, an electrical engineer at University College London, heads the project, which features an RFID technology called Optag. Funded by the European Union, the technology is being developed by a consortium of European companies and the university. Brennan told Silicon.com that a prototype RFID tag will be tested in an airport in Hungary next month.

Brennan said that if the trials in Hungary are a success and the technology attracts customers, it could arrive in airports within two years.

Brennan said Optag has been designed to improve airport security by virtue of its ability to track the movement of suspicious passengers, which would enable security personnel to bar them from entering restricted areas.

The ability to locate individuals could also aid airports in an evacuation situation, he said, and in finding lost children and passengers who are late to the departure gate.”"

Read the rest of this article HERE.

Over time, there have been quite a few technological security products/services that were abandoned because of cost or purpose, but we think this is one that will stick. Pursing this does two things that airport security (and federal security, for that matter) love; it allows efficient tracking of all people, and it is very cheap to implement. Only time will tell to see if this follows through.

Tags: Computer Protection