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Facial Recognition Technology On The Horizon For North Carolina Airports

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent helps a passenger navigate one of the new facial recognition kiosks at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, TX. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

It's likely than when you head to the airport in the near future, facial recognition technology will replace the need for a passport. 

A number of airports around the country have already adopted the use of facial recognition to help alleviate wait times for passengers boarding international flights.

The News and Observer reports the controversial technology may be in place at the Charlotte and Raleigh airports sometime next year.

The process involves cameras that take pictures of arriving travelers that are downloaded and compared to photos already in a federal database. A passenger's identity could be confirmed in seconds.

Some privacy advocates have expressed concerns that the technology is invasive and could be misused.

But Barry Chastain, the federal customs official who oversees North Carolina airports, says facial recognition can deter fraud and will make travel more convenient and secure.

Chastain says he'd like to see the system in place at the Charlotte-Douglas International airport in time for the Republican National Convention, which starts in August of 2020.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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