TECH5, Auctorizium Support Finland’s Pioneering Digital Travel Credential

TECH5 has teamed up with Singapore-based Auctorizium to deliver a turnkey solution for a pioneering Digital Travel Credential (DTC) in Finland. The companies worked with the Finnish airline Finnair, airport operator Finavia, and the Finnish police on a system that would give travelers a streamlined border control and boarding process thanks to mobile ID and biometric technologies.

Essentially, Finland’s DTC is a digital version of a passport. A passenger can create one using a mobile app, with a registration process that involves sharing a selfie and an image of their passport. Facial recognition technology matches the images together, clearing the creation of a DTC on the end user’s smartphone.

Biometrics and PKI

TECH5 is, of course, the provider of the DTC’s biometric technology, via its T5-OmniMatch SDK comprising sophisticated AI algorithms developed fully in-house. Auctorizium, meanwhile, specializes in ePassport Public Key Infrastructure and ePassport validation. PKI involves a pair of keys: a public key, which is openly shared and used for encrypting data, and a private key, which is kept secret and used for decrypting data encrypted with the corresponding public key.

In the context of Digital Travel Credentials (DTC), the traveler’s biometric data – in this case face biometrics – can be encrypted with a public key. This ensures that the data can only be decrypted and read by the entity that holds the corresponding private key, typically the issuing authority or a trusted entity in the travel verification process.

For the Finnish project, Auctorizium developed various critical aspects of the DTC system, including the wallet apps for Android and iOS, the transmission protocol, and an Inspection System for handling of the DTC. But for the solution’s sophisticated biometric component, it turned to TECH5.

“While we possess the know how to implement such a solution, biometrics is not our core capability and I am happy with the partnership with Tech5, the quality of their product and also their excellent support capabilities,” explained Auctorizium CEO R. Rajeshkumar. “This enabled us to focus on our own core competencies in delivering the project while TECH5 took care of the biometrics.”

The Pilot’s Promise

The Finnish pilot project first launched at the end of August, 2023, with the first digital verification of a passenger taking place on September 1, for a flight from Helsinki to London. In January of this year, the project was expanded to enable participants to use the DTC for departures and arrivals connected to 22 Finnair destinations. So far, over 200 Finnair passengers have used the DTC to pass through border control, with the average check taking less than eight seconds.

The pilot is funded by the European Commission, and its results are expected to inform pending European Union regulations concerning the use of DTCs across the region’s borders.

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March 12, 2024 – by Alex Perala