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Thailand to Start Using Electronic Passports and Iris Scan System
Foreign Ministry spokesperson has revealed that Thailand will start using the latest electronic passports in the middle of the year 2020. The cover of the new passport has also been designed to reflect Thai art and culture.
The latest technology is being used to protect personal identities. While the earlier passports used face and fingerprint recognition, the new electronic passport will use the “Iris scan system”, The Nation reports.
The spokesperson said the time taken to submit a new passport application would not take more than 12 minutes. Five hundred passport service points and 15 temporary passport offices nationwide will be set up.
Meanwhile, a trial is under way to use iris and facial images travellers for immigration clearance at automated lanesin Singapore.
If it is successful, scanning passports and fingerprints to clear immigration could become a thing of the past.
With this new contact-less immigration clearance system, travellers with faded fingerprints also do not need to worry about having difficulty clearing immigration.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) is currently conducting a six-month trial.
Besides testing the efficiency and accuracy of the facial and iris matching system. The trial is to assess the time taken for immigration clearance.