TSA seeking airport access tech

The Transportation Security Administration plans to release a request for information this week for its program to test access control technologies at airports across the country.

TSA is looking for vendors who can provide products that are on the market or will soon be available and that can be used as part of the Airport Access Control Pilot Program, said Richard Lazarick, airport technology integration lead at TSA.

Under the pilot program, TSA plans to test new and emerging technologies that will help make airports more secure. These include:

* Face, fingerprint, hand geometry, iris and speaker recognition.

* Detectors, turnstiles, security portals and vehicle gates.

* Video capture, image processing for intruder tracking and scene analysis for abnormal activity.

Later this month, TSA also plans to release a request for proposals for a systems integrator that can integrate the various products to be tested. This contract will be awarded through the National Institutes of Health's Chief Information Officers Solutions and Partners II, Lazarick said.

So far, about 73 airport managers have expressed interest in participating in the pilot program, he said. Eventually, more than 20 airports will be involved in the program, which involves short-term, small-scale deployments.

During the first phase of the pilot, which will begin in December, TSA plans to test lower-risk technologies at about 10 airports.

"We will try the high-risk stuff in the laboratory then see if we can" apply it during the second phase of the pilot, which is scheduled to begin in August, he said.

Lazarick was speaking at the CardTech/SecurTech ID 2002 show in Washington, D.C.