Sunday, March 20, 2016

Look before you leap...or when implementing new technology, test, test,test!

My recent trip to back to the UK (December 2015) was an interesting technology user experience. I currently live in the USA, on the West Coast in Portland, Oregon. I work in Information Technology, or IT as a Business Technology Manager within the City of Portland. So working in the public sector, I am always on the look out for great and effective uses of technology as I travel around, live, play and work. So my latest trip back to the British Isles, and a side trip over to Paris, France was no exception. The British and American civilizations are very comparable in their use of technology, however there are very interesting differences in their adoption and application.

So the first experience when traveling is the airline check-in, and the industry move to computer kiosks rather than check-in agents. This move has been going on for some time, so the airlines have had plenty of opportunity to field test and make improvements to their online website and physical kiosk check-in. But for some reason for me, traveling internationally causes these to error out pretty much all the time. I think it is the need to have/scan passports, and all the additional information and security that occurs for international travel. And I have a green card which probably the last straw that throws the system. I never have a problem with domestic travel where my credit card and driver's license work just fine. Passports now have chips in them but the airlines either don't have access to them, or need to upgrade all their equipment in order to read the chips.

No real difference here between the US and UK check in other than the fact that UK airport and airline staff don't want to believe that the kiosk check-in doesn't work, almost yelling at me when I try to locate and walk over to a manned desk to get assistance. US staff still seem better trained in customer service and are more helpful when you have problems with the machines.

Immigration and border control still have the all too familiar long lines/ queues, and have relied on 'real' immigrant officers. Though recently, I have seen the move to technology in this area. The UK has some unmanned immigration stations for British passport holders who have chip enabled passports. You place your passport on a 'reader' and then look into a camera. First time I used it, I stood for ages before it let me through. It had me worried for a bit. I can only assume that it was creating an entry for me in the 'digital' tracking database, and possibly doing face recognition and confirmation with my stored image. Your travel group all needs to have the upgraded passports to use this, so since I do not travel alone very much, I have not used it much.

The US has begun to use kiosk technology for immigration. I have seen a couple of 'voluntary' and 'fast pass' kiosks in recent years, obviously doing some early testing. On our last trip through Vancouver BC (which has a US immigration presence for flights to the US), we used kiosks that collect the same information as you provide on a US Landing Card, and you use the machine as a family unit. This seemed to be a pilot installation and there were staff helping people use the machines. My wife and daughter were successful, but I was rejected after three attempts. The flash on the camera was incorrectly adjusted, and over-exposing everyone's faces. The machine was obviously trying to do face recognition but it was failing due to the poor photo quality. Successful people collected a receipt from the machine (in place of your landing card), but either way you were still interviewed by an immigration officer. Whilst it was frustrating dealing with the pilot kiosks, I applaud the US immigration for testing the technology out, and getting feedback, rather than rushing to implement fully unmanned immigration processing. The US continues to use more biometrics on Resident Aliens and tourist visitors collecting finger prints and a photo at immigration.

More to come on my travels. Up next,
"That's a really cool use of technology...but what's going on behind the curtain?"