The British government will begin testing facial-recognition technology at airports in the United Kingdom this summer. Individuals who hold new passports issued by the United Kingdom or European Union will be eligible to participate in the trial.

Participants will pass through unmanned gates, where their faces will be scanned electronically, and those facial images will be matched with the digitized photos on record. If the image is verified, the passenger will be allowed to proceed through the gate. The test is one of the first conducted globally to demonstrate the viability of facial-recognition technology to verify the identities of travelers at airports.