Apr.
3--WILLIAMSBURG, Va.
- Ellen Clay of Virginia Beach stood
at the entry turnstiles at Busch Gardens on
Friday, laid her hand flat on a metal machine
and spread her fingers apart. In seconds, tiny
red lights vanished, signaling that Clay, a
season passport holder, was OK to enter the
theme park.
"Awesome," Clay said of the new technology
called the HandEScan. "I'm happy we didn't have
to wait in line to get our picture taken."
Hand scanning has arrived at Busch Gardens
Williamsburg, taking the place of photo
identification for season pass holders this year
at both Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Water
Country USA. Doug Stagner, vice president of
operations for Busch Gardens Williamsburg, said
the new system would allow season pass holders
to enter the park more quickly, prevent fraud
and eliminate waits in line to get photos taken
for identification.
"This is definitely better," Stagner said of
the new system.
"We're trying to streamline the process. We
need some way to match the person to the pass,
and this is a new quicker way to do it."
Known as biometrics, electronic devices are
used to verify identity by recognizing unique
characteristics such as fingerprints,
signatures, hands -- even an iris of an eye.
The technology is widely used in verification
systems at airports and security-sensitive
facilities to screen want-to-be entrants,
particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks.
Biometric systems at airports are typically
linked to a national database, which has enabled
airlines to do background checks but also has
raised privacy concerns among consumers.
With the new system at Busch Gardens,
however, no fingerprints are used and the
information is only used internally at the park,
Stagner said.
"There's really no privacy issue," he
explained. "It's not fingerprinting. This is
just for our internal use, matching the person
to the pass."
Not everyone is convinced.
"There might have been one or two people
who've objected to it and weren't comfortable
with it," Stagner said. "But it's in no way,
shape or form any type of fingerprint."
Rebecca Ouellette, who has been a season pass
holder at Busch Gardens since she was 12, is one
of the skeptics. "It's hard to believe that this
isn't like fingerprinting," said the 27-year old
Williamsburg resident. "I wouldn't want my
fingerprints in a big Busch Gardens file."
More than 1,000 people have been scanned
using the new "hand geometry" system, Stagner
said.
Season pass holder Julie Highsmith, who calls
the new technology "very James Bondish," said
she's not alarmed. "It's my hand," Highsmith
said. "If they want my blood type, then we're
talking something different."
HandEScan measures the top of a person's
hand, taking in finger height, the knuckle shape
and the distance between joints in the hand.
The device takes two separate images of a
hand and then combines the photos to create a
3-D image, officials say. The information is
stored in an internal system and then matched to
each person's season pass bar code upon entry to
the park, said Stagner.
"Like any business, there's a small
percentage of people who try to skirt around the
intent, and we really think it will help guard
against identity theft," Stagner said.
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© 2004, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business
News. BUD,
