CLEAR has obtained a Notice of Allowance from the US Patent and Trademark Office concerning a biometric boarding pass system, the company has announced.
The system is designed to let passengers proceed through an airport and board a plane entirely without the need to show ID documents or boarding passes. In other words, it’s basically the same system CLEAR is working to implement with Delta Airlines at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which is intended to eventually let travelers check bags and board flights through fingerprint scans.
The system has already seen a real-world trial, in fact. In a statement announcing the patent, CLEAR CEO Caryn Seidman Becker said “CLEAR piloted this solution in 2015 at San Jose International Airport (SJC) and received extremely positive customer feedback,” adding that for travelers it means “you never have to break stride or take anything from your pockets to go from curb-to-gate.”
Meanwhile, JetBlue, SITA, and the US Customs and Border Protection agency recently announced that they are working together on a similar system based on facial recognition, suggesting that the idea of replacing traditional travel documents with biometrics is starting to catch on across the industry.
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June 9, 2017 – by Alex Perala