Who is where and when? Enhanced passenger tracking

Airport security is an increasing concern of authorities and passengers alike. Tracking of mass traffic throughout the airport as well as the movement of individuals is an important tool in identifying suspicious or unauthorised behaviours.

Digital Economy

The ‘Improving airport efficiency, security and passenger flow by enhanced passenger monitoring’ (OPTAG) project was designed to develop innovative passenger-tracking technologies using existing facilities to increase air travel safety. Researchers designed the OPTAG system to combine a closed circuit television (CCTV)-based network with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for individual passengers and a user-friendly interface for accurate surveillance. The Department of Electronic Engineering at University College London (UCL EE) developed the RFID tag and reader, producing three prototype readers and a number of passenger tags to be tested at the Debrecen Airport. Photonic Science Ltd (PSL) and UCL Department of Geomatic Engineering (UCL GE) developed a panoramic camera with a 360 degree viewing angle after consultation with the UK Police Scientific Development Branch. Again, three prototype camera clusters were manufactured and used in the Debrecen Airport trial. TSI developed the image processing software and UCL GE updated the parameters following recalibration. With the user interface developed, the Debrecen Airport trial was successfully carried out, providing useful results and practical experience. Future commercial production requires additional enhancements to improve performance, facilitate manufacturing and, most importantly, decrease the cost of the RFID tag.