Hawaii is embracing smart technology options to monitor travelers for potential illness while providing more safety to airport workers.
The state has installed thermal screening and facial imaging equipment at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Kahului Airport (OGG), Lihue Airport (LIH), Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole (KOA) and Hilo International Airport (ITO).
The system scans the temperatures of passengers deplaning and entering the terminal. If someone registers a core body temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher, the system takes their image and alerts airport staff to find the traveler to perform additional health screening.
This project was driven by the Hawaii Department of Transportation Airports Division with a team led by NEC Corp. The thermal screening equipment of the project was provided by ICI Technology has been operational since August, with the latest stage coming online in May.
Jason Van Sice, vice president, NEC America Aviation, said the image is collected with no contextual data.
“Even if an image is captured for the purpose of locating a person in the airport, it’s completely gone after 30 minutes,” he said. “There’s nothing retained after that and it’s not sent anywhere. It’s within a closed network.”
National Guard members were initially used to perform temperature screenings of passengers when the pandemic was first underway. Scanning hundreds of passengers per day put those guardsmen at risk, so the new system automates the testing to protect them.
Getting materials for the project was a challenge due to supply chain issues brought on by the pandemic. Van Sice said they were able to overcome the challenges by coordinating with DOT and subcontractor. NEC had a concerted effort to use as much local resources as possible to bring those contract dollars into the Hawaiian Islands, which helped overcome those challenges.
Each of the airports provide different operating environments. Some have outdoor terminals, so Van Sice said they had to do a lot of work placing and configuring cameras in order to optimize their usage in different environments.
HDOT, airlines and the Hawaii Department of Health were all involved with the project. Van Sice said they worked with both local and national privacy concerns to make sure issues were addressed.
“The privacy part was the most important thing, so we configured a lot of user interface information to ensure nothing was at all controversial was being used or display,” he said. “For example, making sure a boarding pass isn’t being displayed.”
Governments are likely to want more controls to help stave off issues like COVID, especially when it comes to international travel. Van Sice said this type of system can provide that control.
“This is a very visually oriented solution so people do get some level of comfort knowing that controls in terms of safety for them as they travel in and out of Hawaii,” he said “We expect for them to be using this for some time and the image recognition can be scaled to other capabilities as well”
System installation included services, several control rooms, the cameras and stands for staff to monitor the current situation.
Van Sice said airports need to make sure they have a clear and agreed upon business imperative if considering using this type of system. Understand the goal and the business process behind the technology.
Also turn to existing infrastructure to see how it can be leveraged with something new.
“As an organization, what is it that you’re really trying to solve,” he said. “Is it an EBT or do you want to identify where someone has been after they exit the flight.”
