Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ODYSSEUS (Unobtrusive Technologies for Secure and Seamless Border Crossing for Travel Facilitation)
Période du rapport: 2023-01-01 au 2023-12-31
The project “Unobtrusive Technologies for Secure and Seamless Border Crossing for Travel Facilitation”, with the acronym ODYSSEUS is funded by the European Commission under Horizon programme and the topic HORIZON-CL3-2021-BM-01-03-Improved border checks for travel facilitation across external borders and improved experiences for both passengers and border authorities’ staff, starting 1 January 2023. In the context of the increase of the transnational travel by 50% until 2030, as suggested by the World Economic Forum, ODYSSEUS project has the important goal to improve the process of EU border crossing for both citizens and Border Authorities, while maintaining privacy and security.
ODYSSEUS project has five main objectives:
1. DESIGN and DEVELOP a unifying platform that enables seamless, fully non-stop border crossing in a highly secure manner.
2. ADVANCE the identification and control capabilities of Border Authorities through robust and reliable identity verification mechanisms introducing an EU mobile (virtual) passport protected by continuous behavioral authentication.
3. IMPROVE border control checks without stopping cargos and vehicles through safe, unobtrusive and portable screening based on X-ray backscatter technology, UAV-assisted image processing and AI based data analytics.
4. VALIDATE the effectiveness of the proposed ODYSSEUS platform through its demonstration in real-life environments as the border crossing on the road, by water or by train.
5. SPEED UP the introduction of ODYSSEUS innovations through wide communication, scientific dissemination and targeted commercial exploitation activities coupled with contributions to relevant standardization bodies.
The approach of ODYSSEUS is to collect identity and other travel relevant data of people before the travel. Upon arrival at a border crossing point, the next two phases are the identity verification process of the travelers and the screening of vehicles, luggage and cargos The results are fused in order to make the final decision about the passenger/vehicles passing the border without stopping or triggering a deeper inspection process.
The identity verification process will be performed through the Virtual Passport technology enabling citizens to securely manage their identity information through their smartphone, read by a Seamless onboarding device supported by the User Continuous Behavioral Authentication that will ensure the identity checking. At arrival at a border crossing point on road, train or ship, the vehicle and the luggage or cargo are processed through Unobtrusive X-Ray scanning technology, UAV-assisted image processing, Faceless Person Counting and AI based data analytics.
The core of the ODYSSEUS platform lies in the data collection and management layer where identity and other travel relevant data are received from the travelers before of the travel. The vehicles, luggage and cargo analytics are collected at the arrival at the border and processed to ensure that there are no illegal and illicit goods or materials are detected. The Decision Support System computes a risk score for each of the passengers and vehicles crossing the border, in order to either allow them to seamlessly cross the border without stopping or to alert the Border Authorities regarding the need for a deeper inspection guided by the analytics and the risk score of the platform. The Border Authorities are informed through the platform’s dedicated user-friendly interfaces about results of processed data in order to easily identify cases of identity fraud, smuggling and human trafficking. The platform is applicable for both land and sea scenarios including on the road, at the port and in the train.
All activities performed during the project life cycle are compliant with the EU legal framework, including the Ethical principles in research, GDPR and the EU AI Act provisions.
During the first year of implementation, research was done on gathering of needs from end users, both citizens and Border Authorities, use cases and end users scenarios were created, technical requirements were defined and the ODYSSEUS platform architecture was designed for the development of the platform that will facilitate and improve the border crossing experience for travelers and border authorities staff, taking in account the need of maintaining security and monitoring of movements across land and sea EU external borders, supporting the Schengen space.
These activities together with the advances reached in the technology offerings that will be integrated in the platform are contributing towards the outcome of validation of innovative solutions for border crossing facilitation systems at European level for near-seamless and improved border crossing experience for travelers.
The development of identification and control capabilities, as Seamless Identity verification, AI-powered continuous behavioral authentication and the Decision Support System are supporting the identification of people crossing external borders. Other activities as the non-obtrusive X-ray technologies for vehicle scanning and using UAVs will increase reliability and security capabilities of border checks and improve the security of EU land and water borders.
The different scanning technologies currently under development will secure identity verification and unobtrusive luggage checks, eliminating long delays in border areas and will facilitate better organization and planning of border checks, to minimize queues and disruption. The same technologies will improve detection capabilities in order to fight terrorism, illegal good flows and other criminal activities.
Communication and dissemination activities like social media promotion, press releases, the project website, regular newsletters and the presentations for EU institutions are continuous and supporting the uptake of the project innovation with different stakeholders.
ODYSSEUS project has five main objectives:
1. DESIGN and DEVELOP a unifying platform that enables seamless, fully non-stop border crossing in a highly secure manner.
2. ADVANCE the identification and control capabilities of Border Authorities through robust and reliable identity verification mechanisms introducing an EU mobile (virtual) passport protected by continuous behavioral authentication.
3. IMPROVE border control checks without stopping cargos and vehicles through safe, unobtrusive and portable screening based on X-ray backscatter technology, UAV-assisted image processing and AI based data analytics.
4. VALIDATE the effectiveness of the proposed ODYSSEUS platform through its demonstration in real-life environments as the border crossing on the road, by water or by train.
5. SPEED UP the introduction of ODYSSEUS innovations through wide communication, scientific dissemination and targeted commercial exploitation activities coupled with contributions to relevant standardization bodies.
The approach of ODYSSEUS is to collect identity and other travel relevant data of people before the travel. Upon arrival at a border crossing point, the next two phases are the identity verification process of the travelers and the screening of vehicles, luggage and cargos The results are fused in order to make the final decision about the passenger/vehicles passing the border without stopping or triggering a deeper inspection process.
The identity verification process will be performed through the Virtual Passport technology enabling citizens to securely manage their identity information through their smartphone, read by a Seamless onboarding device supported by the User Continuous Behavioral Authentication that will ensure the identity checking. At arrival at a border crossing point on road, train or ship, the vehicle and the luggage or cargo are processed through Unobtrusive X-Ray scanning technology, UAV-assisted image processing, Faceless Person Counting and AI based data analytics.
The core of the ODYSSEUS platform lies in the data collection and management layer where identity and other travel relevant data are received from the travelers before of the travel. The vehicles, luggage and cargo analytics are collected at the arrival at the border and processed to ensure that there are no illegal and illicit goods or materials are detected. The Decision Support System computes a risk score for each of the passengers and vehicles crossing the border, in order to either allow them to seamlessly cross the border without stopping or to alert the Border Authorities regarding the need for a deeper inspection guided by the analytics and the risk score of the platform. The Border Authorities are informed through the platform’s dedicated user-friendly interfaces about results of processed data in order to easily identify cases of identity fraud, smuggling and human trafficking. The platform is applicable for both land and sea scenarios including on the road, at the port and in the train.
All activities performed during the project life cycle are compliant with the EU legal framework, including the Ethical principles in research, GDPR and the EU AI Act provisions.
During the first year of implementation, research was done on gathering of needs from end users, both citizens and Border Authorities, use cases and end users scenarios were created, technical requirements were defined and the ODYSSEUS platform architecture was designed for the development of the platform that will facilitate and improve the border crossing experience for travelers and border authorities staff, taking in account the need of maintaining security and monitoring of movements across land and sea EU external borders, supporting the Schengen space.
These activities together with the advances reached in the technology offerings that will be integrated in the platform are contributing towards the outcome of validation of innovative solutions for border crossing facilitation systems at European level for near-seamless and improved border crossing experience for travelers.
The development of identification and control capabilities, as Seamless Identity verification, AI-powered continuous behavioral authentication and the Decision Support System are supporting the identification of people crossing external borders. Other activities as the non-obtrusive X-ray technologies for vehicle scanning and using UAVs will increase reliability and security capabilities of border checks and improve the security of EU land and water borders.
The different scanning technologies currently under development will secure identity verification and unobtrusive luggage checks, eliminating long delays in border areas and will facilitate better organization and planning of border checks, to minimize queues and disruption. The same technologies will improve detection capabilities in order to fight terrorism, illegal good flows and other criminal activities.
Communication and dissemination activities like social media promotion, press releases, the project website, regular newsletters and the presentations for EU institutions are continuous and supporting the uptake of the project innovation with different stakeholders.
• Coordination of the project activities , creation of Quality and Risk Management procedures, Data Management Plan created, Ethical Research framework Set-up and ethical principles implementation continuously monitored.
• End users requirements collected and Use cases defined
• User scenarios and technical requirements created
• Platform architecture designed
• Organisation of the online 1st Ethics Workshop with all project partners on 4 December 2023
• Individual progress of technology preparation.
• Partners alignment toward integration of components.
• Project’s actions were disseminated through various channels: the project website, social media platforms, and newsletters.
• Participation in relevant dissemination events.
• Published 1st ODYSSEUS article in a journal.
• Distributed promotional material.
• Established collaborations with sister projects.
• Created the initial exploitation and standardisation plans.
• First milestone of the project was achieved in October 2023.
• End users requirements collected and Use cases defined
• User scenarios and technical requirements created
• Platform architecture designed
• Organisation of the online 1st Ethics Workshop with all project partners on 4 December 2023
• Individual progress of technology preparation.
• Partners alignment toward integration of components.
• Project’s actions were disseminated through various channels: the project website, social media platforms, and newsletters.
• Participation in relevant dissemination events.
• Published 1st ODYSSEUS article in a journal.
• Distributed promotional material.
• Established collaborations with sister projects.
• Created the initial exploitation and standardisation plans.
• First milestone of the project was achieved in October 2023.
The state of the art in border management processes was researched at the beginning of the project and was the ground for the technical specifications and the design of the architecture of the platform. Further developments and validation of solutions will be performed accordingly with the project plan.