Indra renews the Automatic Border Control system for Barajas and el Prat

Indra has renewed the Automatic Border Control system at the Madrid-Barajas and Barcelona-El Prat airports. This advanced system developed by the company increases security levels and speeds up border procedures. The improvements introduced in the new version make it possible to carry out biometric verifications faster and more securely, as well as to manage all the systems in a centralised manner from the General Police Department's Data Processing Centre.

The system verifies passenger documentation to confirm their identity through facial and fingerprint imaging. Citizens of countries within the Schengen area that enter Spain from outside of this zone are able to conveniently pass through police controls without the involvement of agents. Since Indra implemented this solution in May 2010, more than 450,000 have used it. The average processing time is 20 seconds.

In this second version, new technological features have been added while maintaining the procedure's simplicity for passengers as well as the civil servants who supervise the system.

Indra has simplified the biometric verification process by including a number of certainty and uncertainty zones. As a result, the system performs the facial verification and, depending on the result, decides whether it is necessary to also perform the biometric fingerprint verification.

The new version also includes a multi-mode biometric process. The results of individual biometric verifications along with other additional features, such as quality and reliability, are combined to offer a unique result. This reduces false rejection rates and prevents passenger inconveniences.

In addition, Indra has implemented a centralised management platform that allows the General Police Department, which owns and operates the ABC (Automatic Border Control) system, to remotely control all the systems installed at multiple airports from its Data Processing Centre. The platform is equipped with the necessary tools that allow to completely control all the systems for simultaneous configurations, to make architecture changes, to manage users and to obtain statistics about the number of passengers who have been identified, registered errors, deteriorated documents, etc.

Lastly, a new functionality has been added that allows all the systems to be monitored centrally. A screen displays the status of each system, whether it is active and if there is a technical incident error.

Pioneers in security

Indra has been a pioneer in the development of automatic border control systems, and Spain was one of the first countries to implement it in 2010. Since then, the system has been used in the T1 and T4 terminals of Madrid-Barajas, as well as in the T1 and T2 terminals of El Prat-Barcelona. This experience places Indra in an unbeatable competitive position for implementing the system in airports throughout the world. At this time, and after the European Union's support of standards to regulate its use, a significant number of organisations in the continent have shown interest in obtaining the system.

This border control technology allows making the most of new electronic passports and identity documents that include cryptologic systems. This improves security and precision in passenger identification, and also reduces costs. Indra is a pioneer in the area of identity assurance systems. More than 30 million documents and identity cells carry the company's technology.

Indra

Indra is the leading technology multinational in Spain and a leader in Europe and Latin America. It is the second European company in its sector in terms of R&D, with €550 million invested in the last three years. Its turnover in 2011 was €2.688 billion, and more than half of its income is currently from international markets. The company employs 40,000 professionals and has customers in 118 countries.