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Once again, the world of science fiction merges into that of the real world and this time it’s immigration control at one of the busiest UK airports that is bringing us into the 21st Century. Where we once saw the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger having his faced scanned to identify him in films, now passengers passing through passport control will have their faces scanned for real and then have that image matched with the one on their passport.

The sheer number of people flying into the UK means there are often long queues but this new scanning system hopes to cut the checking process in half. The current time for ‘manual’ checks is just over 20 seconds but, with the two scanning machines being piloted at Manchester City Airport, it’s cut down to around 13 seconds, which may not seem like a lot but certainly adds up at peak times.

The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is backing the idea but there have been a few criticisms voiced already. A member of the anti big brother set, Guy Herbert, the general secretary of No2ID has raised concerns over the accuracy of the recognition. His concerns come at a time when there have been serious shake ups with passports and the news that by 2016 all UK residents will have to possess a biometric passport, which according to specialist hackers, can be cloned in an hour.

Heathrow has postponed the new finger-printing checks using the same passport because of security concerns. It seems science fiction might be remaining that way for the moment.