Airport Switches Face-Recognition Systems Over Accuracy Concerns

Fresno Yosemite International Airport, the first U.S. airport to try Viisage Technology Inc.’s face-recognition technology, stopped using the system because of concerns about its accuracy, officials said.

The Viisage system was deployed at the airport in October, but it stopped using the system by January. It was removed by Feb. 1 and replaced by one from rival Visionics Corp., said Ron Cadle, vice president of closely held Pelco, the contractor running the airport’s trial of facial-recognition systems.

Fresno was one of four airports that had agreed to try the Viisage system, which compares the faces of ticketed passengers against a database of terrorists’ photos.

“We started off with Viisage but dropped Viisage and went with Visionics because it had a higher accuracy rate,” airport spokeswoman Patti Miller said.

Face recognition is an experimental technology being tried at airports in California, Massachusetts, Texas and Florida as part of an effort to boost security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. U.S. airports are expected to spend $100 billion on security in 2003, and Viisage and Visionics are counting on their systems to grab a share of that market.

“This is totally new news to me,” said Viisage Chief Executive Tom Colatosti after he was informed Thursday of the system’s removal by Bloomberg News. “I’m stunned by that.”

In an interview last week, Colatosti identified the Fresno site as one of the airports now using the Littleton, Mass.-based firm’s system.

Cadle said Viisage was notified orally around the time of the removal but not in writing. He didn’t say whom he notified. Cadle declined to provide data on the relative performance of the systems from Viisage and Visionics, and said only that the airport got better results from Visionics.

Colatosti said Viisage received no negative feedback from Fresno on the system and no notification it had been removed.

“I’ve never heard that we had a performance problem” in Fresno, Colatosti said. “The last I heard, they were very pleased with it.”

He said the manner of removal was inappropriate and unprofessional.

Viisage announced a contract with New Hampshire’s Manchester Airport on May 16.

The company news release didn’t disclose that the airport paid nothing for the Viisage system, which was presented by an independent foundation as a gift, according to airport and foundation officials.

Shares of Viisage fell 62 cents to $5.43, and Visionics closed unchanged at $10.26, both on Nasdaq.