Designs on the Games
Tuesday 7th October 2008
Savoy Place, London
Organised by PhoneAbility and the IET
Security of visitors, officials and athletes (Biometric considerations)
by Julian Jones
Good afternoon,
security of sporting venues and stadia is a large field and it is only possible to touch on a few points in the time I have available today so my focus is the possibilities which are presented by the use of biometrics. If you came here expecting security systems then unfortunately we're not going to cover all those, security involves people as well as systems.
Let me first of all just set the context of the London Olympics. Biometric are very dependent on people. We need to look at who will be there, the threats, the locations, there are many locations as we have already seen and the role that biometric technology could play. And the financial considerations we need to address for accessibility. We need to look at the enroling of users, education and help that people need, and what happens in an emergency.
So who will be there? Figures pulled off the website large numbers of athletes, managers of other team members, workforce we have heard, won't be as large as Beijing but it will be something in the order of 100,000 people. 20,000 press, there will be again not as many as in Beijing but there mill be performance at the opening and closing events. Visitors I think 180000 a day is right average, we're expecting a quarter of a million to come through the transport systems. And the stadium itself holds 80,000. The opening and closing ceremony will be the times when we see most users there.
If we look at the ticketing, the London location, plus the football stadia round the country where the football will take place, there will be over 7 million tickets for the Olympics, 1.5 million for the paralympics. People will be encouraged to use public transport, tickets will be free for public transport we will see up-grades to the DLR, the Docklands light railway and to the St Pancras javelin shuttle which will take people from St Pancras to the Olympic site. As yet we don't know exactly what the the distribution and purchase details will be but tickets will start to be sold in 2011.
Basically there will be no cars on the site, just a a few blue badge spaces, and the only park and ride will be at the far end of the javelin railway in Dartford.
So, again we have heard earlier today different groups will require different levels of security. In general we're talking today about the London location here. Visitors will need to be checked and the needs of those people adjusted to those people, we're looking at vast numbers. But in addition there will be officials, athletes, the media and press will need their facilities. There will be sponsors (as we have heard about the treatment of sponsors). Performers who will just appear at the opening and closing ceremony, there will be drivers and support for disabled athletes and visitors. But also caterers, retailers, cleaners, maintenance staff, and indeed the security staff themselves. All needing different treatment.
When John asked me to do this I realised there was something rather familiar about this topic, and I realised I had seen it somewhere before.
I went up in my attic and retrieved my old Eagle annuals because five years after the last Olympics, in Eagle annual number 3, Dan Dare had to foil a terrorist plot by the Mekon, his enemy and the leader of the Treens, who were trying to blow up the interplanetary stadium on Venus. It's a topic that's been with me for the last 55 years {laughter}.
But stadiums are dangerous places. As we know in the 80's there were a number of disasters, the Heysel Stadium in Brussels - the European cup final between Liverpool and Juventus, the fans rioted, the wall collapsed. Hundreds were injured a few years later at Hillsborough in Sheffield - semi-final of the FA cup. We had a crush, 96 were dead and 766 injured in that same stadium. There were 38 injuries in a crush in 1981. In addition in the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford there was a flash fire under the old wooden stand, and 56 people died many of them at the rear of the stands who tried to exit but found the doors were in fact locked.
So, in addition to that we have seen the politicisation of the Olympic Games which is another reason why it started with a simple protest at the Mexico City Olympics, we saw the Black Power raised fists, we saw this year the disruption of the Olympic flame here in London. We have seen the Olympics used for boycotts in Moscow in 1980s when 62 countries stayed away, and we have seen actual terrorist events in Munich, although that was in the Olympic Village rather than the stadium. In Atlanta where a concert being performed at the time of the Games were bombed and we have heard from China that several terrorist plots were foiled going away from the actual Olympic locations.
Even staging the Games these days comes with various conditions on human rights and individual freedoms and we know that London obviously will live with a heightened level of security here at all times, so London is a sensitive place.
Terrorism can come in many forms, there can be physical attacks on buildings or people. Attacks on vital information and communications. We have heard a lot today about communications, the disrupting of communication, finding information causes major disruption to Games. Similarly threats and hoaxs and intimidation again to raise the level of risk by causing disruption.
So security measures must never compromise the spectator safety. That earlier fire incident we mentioned where the doors were locked to prevent people from entering the stadium without tickets. But in fact that resulted in most of the deaths.
When we look at the security in terms of biometric measures, basically we have the normal information security requirements, confidentiality of information, integrity of that information, and making sure it's available when it's needed. And at the same time we have to comply with the data protection act on the use of that data.
So, the London Olympics, as we have heard, is one of the biggest events, probably is the biggest event in the next few years in the UK. There will be visitors from more than 200 countries - we'll have a very diverse set of people here. And the events, accommodation will be in 17 locations in London, but also, again as we have heard, Weymouth. There will be events on the roads of London - the triathlon and the marathon. We have heard from the organising services of the Games that they are committed to leading technology to create solutions for the Games, and creating legacy benefits for the community.
So, any security measures need a risk assessment and that will have to cover all the competitive venues, the Olympic village and other accommodation, the training venues and the transport infrastructure because as soon as people come on to the transport infrastructure with their free transport included in their tickets they will be within the Olympic environment.
We need to identify the potential risks and assess probability and consider the impact of those risks. So we often turn up with very simple things: the actual built environment, the steps, the barriers, I don't know this site but there will be water features, slippery surfaces, sharp edges. The other thing that we can solve by the way we check people, restricting the bringing in of food, large luggage, we can reduce the number of unexpected obstacles, litter, glass, sharp objects, bags. And the other concern, obviously as with the Valley Stadium we talked about earlier was a very old stadium where litter accumulated of course, that fire, but here we might have maintenance equipment and tools, open cabinets and man holes because it's a new location. We need to be sure that people have secured those when the public are in the buildings, indeed so there's no volatile materials on the site.
We have heard there won't really be any vehicles in the area, or a reduced number of vehicles in the Olympic area, the main Olympic park, but one of the prime ways we're asking people to move around is cycles, and riding can be quite a hazard. We also need to look at the peaks in arrivals, departures and the intervals of events where people will be moving in and out of the site, and various buildings. We need to consider those fire and emergency evacuation procedures, and the fact they will present opportunities for people to get into the stadium if all the gates were open to allow people to get out.
Because of the number of incidents we have had at stadiums in the UK, in fact the heightened awareness here in the UK there's been a lot of work to improve the procedures for stadiums and these types of venues. We heard earlier that there will be vast numbers of people arriving at the location, at the Olympic park, 118,000 people will pass through the Stratford station, and another 25,000 for the javelin shuttle station. There's a total hourly capacity as we have heard in peak hours of nearly a quarter of a million and on week days, an estimates 800,000 people will actually travel to the Games.
So the site actually follows the river in the lower Lea Valley, and the security of the whole location is really bounded by a road around the outside of the site. We have got a large number of the sports facilities here on this site.
As you see on the map, it's shown on here that the Olympic stadium itself is shown at the bottom of the site there, its on a island and its built with a number of bridges on to that island so people arriving in those peak hours will be distributed over the various bridges which lead to the different sites at the site. In fact around the stadium there's fair amount of area for the spectators to circulate, and in fact the refreshment areas will be there. The actual turnstiles will be at the end of the bridges where they join that area, and so will actually allow people in the event of an emergency to actually leave the stadium and progress through that area round the stadium and eventually out of the turn styles without the same sort of panic as there is in a confined stadium with the gates right at the boundary.
So, let's get onto the main focus of my talk, biometrics. Ticketing as we have heard can cover travel, the actual sporting events themselves, but also quite probably for those retail outlets within the site, purchasing, as well depending on the value of the transaction, biometrics may be used for travel. We would expect it would be integrated with the Oyster system. It's probably unlikely we'll introduce biometrics to the turnstile or the tube station but may be we want to introduce it at the actual ticketing booth, so we can verify who owns various tickets.
We need to look at the access control to the restricted areas for athletes and officials and as we have heard already the cost of the tickets and the technology used is like to be greater for those people and therefore they will need more biometric characteristics recorded. Because fingerprints won't work for people with missing limbs, and face and Iris recognition may be a problem for people who are totally blind, the iris is a focus point. Clearly we'll also, because of the threat, the security threats, we may be looking at surveillance for known individuals who may present.
The whole of the location is open from late June right through to September, and the press will move into their press centre in June. So different people will have their security credentials just for a day, or maybe for about a 2.5 months period.
Okay, so if we look at these different technologies, fingerprints they are a widely used technology. Just step back, I am a assuming everybody knows what biometrics are? That may not be the case so, basically biometrics is the automated recognition of people through their physical or behavioural characteristics. So basically the technologies we're looking at here, looking at face and Iris, this means capturing the image and processing that image to actually identify the key characteristics where the eyes are, where the fingerprints or ridges or grooves end or take sharp inflections. Then recording those points so they can be used for comparison when one takes a second sample of that. So if we look at these technologies here, fingerprints are very well proven technology but they are associated with crime. As happened at Heathrow Terminal 5, it can raise concerns for people who fear it may result in major inconvenience and we have seen with school children, parents who become very concerned that their children's fingerprints will be captured and this will will be lost. We have all these incidents recently of information being lost that could compromise the children's security and ability to use biometric in the future.
The associations with crime are a problem but at the same time we know fingerprints are being introduced by 2012, probably half the users of passports will have received their biometric passports. And it's already used for logging on to computers and mobile phones are being fitted with fingerprint technology. It's rapid operation but it's not appropriate for individuals with missing limbs.
If we look at the face, then as we said the subject must face the camera which may be a problem for some groups. Camera adjustment must be adjustble for height, we expect children to be attending these locations as well, so that used to be a bit of a problem with older technology but modern equipment actually has very good adjustble facilities. And the face must be visible. We know that people turn up with fancy dress to these events, I guess we could just recap the fingerprints we saw those wheelchair rugby players who had gloves on for their wheelchairs, clearly again that fingerprints may not be the easiest technology for them they would have to use a fingerprint reader very close to their participation in these events. But similarly with the face, people do turn up with strange fancy dress if that covers the face they will have to remove it, but I think we probably need to check that the extreme face painting you see from some supporters doesn't create a problem.
Iris is again sensitive to the position of the subject, and again that can be difficult for blind people, or people with limited mobility to actually adjust to be in the right position. Some of the latest technology again, they can capture without that same need to position one self so closely. But for some people with visual impairments if we do choose to use Iris, it may be necessary to have an operator actually position the camera to capture that image. These sorts of techniques have been used by the United Nations in various places where they have distributed food to make sure they don't give food to same person twice.
So, people abroad may not have encountered biometric technology before. We need to make them aware that biometrics are being used. We need to say that it's covered by the data protection act, so we need to have some privacy statement to say what checks are been made with that data, how long the data is retained and what its used for.
We need to ensure that people are prepared, that they actually do have clean hands so if we use this for retail in food outlets, it's going to be important that we actually scan the fingerprints before we hand them a sticky ice cream or something of that sort which could end up with a very major cleaning problem for the fingerprint scanners. As I say the face visibility, people turn up in fancy dress or half veils, people need to know they can remove that or go to a special room where they can reveal their faces.
As I say we have got people from 200 countries arriving here, we're going to see many different languages, scripts, and cultures. There may be differences, veiled people if we have many fully veiled people arising it's a sensitive area. In terms of languages, I think the question earlier was a good one, what about translation services? We need clear signs where they are in differing languages, we need fonts, such as the Tiresias SignFont. We should have prompts if possible, active signs that will talk to person. What we really need is an internationally recognised set of standard symbols and icons for these biometric technologies and the way they are used that really indicate what type of biometric people are about to encounter, what to do, and when they arrive there where to stand and also indicators than the image has been captured successfully, or that they should retry or that its been unsuccessful or they should seek help. When it's used in the Olympics we should have systems.
On the language I noticed the documents posted on the 2012 website and actually offer translation into 21 languages and 12 different descriptions so certainly signage is a problem for this.
When we use technology, accessibility is an important thing it needs to be designed from the start for fingerprint readers they must be within reach, they must not be obstructed if they are on a counter, by the design of the counter, or any displayed goods on that counter. They need to be the correct height for the users and also angled correctly. Maybe with an adjustable angle because people with mobility problems, arthritis, may have difficulty placing their fingers on the fingerprint readers.
Again for face and Iris the cameras need to be adjustble for height, and there may be problems for people with guide dogs. Again if you have a guide dog, either with a fingerprint reader or a camera the guide dog will be there on your right, and it will affect the position you stand in, and whether you can reach those devices.
There needs to be space if the design of any turnstile actually has doors front and back it will be difficult for subjects in wheelchairs, at least some of those that are electric, and with foot marks we have seen with biometric solution there are foot marks on the ground to say where you should stand clearly those mechanisms foot marks or any other guides need to be positioned if you are a in a wheelchair you can adjust your chair to right position.
Just reading the DCMS guide for safety at sports grounds, and its policy there it talks about the spectator safety and emergency plan and having safety audits to ensure the turnstile and whole safety of the location is proven. And the turnstiles, the normal ones are not suitable for wheelchair users or visually impaired spectators and people with assistance dogs so we need to ensure that there are some access facilities where those people can get into the site.
The Olympic stadium, certainly the location, seems well designed. It's actually scooped out into a saucer, and so in fact there is level access to that site. And that is with an appropriate vision panel and it should be staffed by a steward. All those entering by those routes need to be counted if they don't go through the turnstiles in these locations it will be as important as well to try to monitor these people if they leave as well, so for the athletes themselves and the officials we should monitor their exit as well using biometric readers so we know who's in there in the event of an emergency.
We have heard already about smooth traffic flow and the need, I think Lord Erroll mentioned the need for clear wayfinding and navigation aids so where people move out of a location into another location rapidly they can use the same route, those people with special needs actually use the appropriate route and can be helped by assistance. That maybe true of all of us.
Also of course we need really a single point of contact for lost cards. People lose their cards on the transport system or anywhere else as well as in the Games and so a single point of contact but also a place where people can go. One of the benefits of biometrics is that people can actually present their biometric even in the absence of their ticket, and be reissued with a new credential. So as I say that may be something we do at major transport ticket booths, actually provide some biometric readers there so people can be reissued with lost or stolen cards.
Just talking about it again, we have talked about the difference between visitors who may have come for a day, we don't really know quite what the arrangements will be for selling tickets. They may be sold through agents or cash or over the Internet. In the case of some major entertainment park facilities tickets are sold for cash but when they are first used the user runs their biometric, their fingerprint then prevents the ticket being stolen and used by somebody else. And basically secures that ticket for use by that individual.
Tickets could be valid for maybe one day and just one location. For the Olympic family, officials, athlete coaches we should know who all the people are similarly for people with a disability, they will register with a little more information then others and can have additional biometrics captured or appropriate biometric, and do a full biometric enrolment and actually be identified. Similarly the volunteers need to have credentials and allow them to enter the venues or locations. They need full enrolment as with any employment they are dealing with vulnerable people, so at the paralympics they will have CRB checks. Even the press will have to provide identification and be fully registered.
So we see that the objectives of the London Olympics are to use mature and advanced technologies in the Games. But it's an opportunity it says on there despite what the gentleman said about research, it's an opportunity to push down boundaries to create new applications. However, we need reliable solutions and a lasting benefit for local communities.
As we said I have spent the last 4.5 years as a consumer representative in fact on various committees for BSI, and national standards, and we have spent a lot of time producing standards. There are others here who actually can talk about the standards, there's an example there of the European standard, the British standard, very soon the ISO biometric standard will be published. That should be available very soon so there you are. {Applause}
JOHN GILL: Thank you very much. Any questions?
NEW SPEAKER: Can I just update Julian's note about the standards, because I also sit on the BSI consumer policy unit, and I sit on ISO, sorry, CEN spectator facilities.
The comment or the note that he had on there was part 4. Well, it's gone on a bit from there. It's now got six parts published. The 7th is entry and exit which is about to be published which covers the items mentioned on the previous slide about turnstiles. It covers all the elements there.
Part 1 is being revised to include spectators, people with special needs, and that hopefully will be published by the end of the year as a working, as a technical report.
And we are also about to start on a new standard, safety management, which is being sponsored by the Council of Europe. I don't want to take up too much tea time, but if anybody wants to have a word with me about EN 13200, I shall be in the tea room. Thank you.
Julian Jones: Yes. The standards identified there were just a sample. In the case of biometrics, I forget how many standards are published there now but it's probably more than two dozen so it's impossible to list them all.
Lord Erroll: What are you going to do about all the false negatives, which you are going to get quite a significant number of, if you use fingerprints.
Julian Jones: I think, in almost all these applications, we would inspect. We have attended operations, so if there are problems, then an attendant will actually have to come and give assistance.
Lord Erroll: (inaudible)… then the second time he hasn't got a ticket. There will be a hoo-ha. Have you noticed about the fingerprint technology if that works because you won't get a dirty reader problem.
Julian Jones: That sort of technology is widely used in Japan, and as you say that does avoid the dirty reader problems.
The technique of using fingerprints, as I say, has been used in large leisure parks for several years now and has been used successfully. So if anyone wants to talk to me afterwards - I wasn't quite sure whether I could reference that explicitly today, but I am sure I can talk to anyone. But that very technique has been used for a number of years with many millions of users going through and it does seem to be successful.
Obviously if you are doing it anonymously, really for a one-day ticket, then the level of matching - you can set the thresholds to a level that should ensure that you don't get too many false readings.
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