I'm too common for an epassport

On the way back from the UpNorthWeb conference in Oslo yesterday, I got all excited at the prospect of using my biometric passport in the automatic gates at the airport.

Up I strode and scanned the photo page of the passport using the electronic reader.

And scanned it again, and again.

Eventually, a customs officer noticed my predicament; he suggested that I go over to the staffed desk. It turned out the reason for the passport gate not working was rather suprising, and certainly worth clicking on the Read more link to find out.

The nice lady on the desk who agreed to let me back onto UK soil explained that the automated gates wouldn't work for me because my name is too common.

Leaving aside any question of class, I realise that neither of my names are particulary rare but it does seem an odd problem given that checking the name doesn't really count as a biometric test.

When our news editor Dinah reported on the introduction of e-Passport gates in all the major airports in the UK, she was told that the chip stores a digital copy of the bearer's passport photo and that the computer compares that with the face of the traveller. Quite why my name should have any effect on that is beyond me.

Then again, if British officialdom were to decide that my face was too common as well, I might not be able to handle the blow to my ego.