Tan Kin Lian - Perspectives Combined passport checking
The automated gates for passport checking at Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints are working well. I congratulate the immigration authority (ICA) and the home affairs minister for the good work.

I think this is how the automated gate works.

The traveler scans the passport and looks into the camera. The gate takes an image and uses facial recognition AI to compare the images. The computations are done in the computer at the gate, and not at the backend server.  The passport data, without the images, is then sent to the server for recording the transaction. The server would probably check that the passport is not blacklisted, and send a command to open the gate.

I like to suggest the following that Singapore and Malaysian authorities cooperate as follows.

a. The passport checking is carried out at the automated gate at the departing checkpoint and the data is sent to the server of both countries for recording and processing.

b. The automated gate is opened when approval is granted by both countries

This cooperation will reduce the manpower costs of both governments significantly. It is worth pursuing. It will also reduce the travel time for the people, especially for workers who have to pass through the checkpoints daily.

For passports that have to be checked manually by the immigration officer, a similar system can be adopted. Instead of the verification being done by the AI at the automated gate, the immigration officer at the counter will verify the face of the traveler against the photo in the passport. The data from the scanned passport is captured and send to the authority at both sides. 

Tan Kin Lian

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