Similarly to other projects in this database, ODYSSEUS promises a future of “seamless” border-crossings in which, thanks to surveillance technologies, safety and comfort are not in a trade-off. Ideally, the “digital solutions” developed during ODYSSEUS would enable citizens to “seamlessly cross borders without stopping,” while “reducing the workload and improving productivity for Border Guard Authorities by providing highly detailed risk analysis.”
This way, argues the project description on Cordis, “secure identity verification and unobtrusive vehicle/luggage/cargo checks” were possible, all the while “eliminating long delays at border areas.”
Smartphone-based verification plays a crucial role in ODYSSEUS’ vision. So much so that the “proposed technologies will allow citizens to cross borders without any intervention by just leveraging their smartphones combined with strong and continuous identity verification.”
This were to be complemented with “remote vehicle/luggage scanning through X-Rays and UAVs,” which “will allow authorities to remotely perform the appropriate controls.”
In ODYSSEUS, a set of identity verification technologies is deployed to realize a vision that ultimately amounts to the automated sorting of border-crossing flows. “Seamless”, uninterrupted border-crossings is promised for those who are considered to be trustworthy according to the risk analyses provided — before their journey even starts — by ODYSSEUS technologies. Those who are instead algorithmically found to be risky are to be scanned more thoroughly.
The “Reporting” section of the project’s Cordis page says explicitly: “The approach of ODYSSEUS is to collect identity and other travel relevant data of people before the travel. Upon arrival at a border crossing point, the next two phases are the identity verification process of the travelers and the screening of vehicles, luggage and cargos. The results are fused in order to make the final decision about the passenger/vehicles passing the border without stopping or triggering a deeper inspection process.”
According to this “approach,” a “Virtual Passport technology” is developed, which together with innovative authentication tools is able to “seamlessy” communicate with travelers’ smartphones: “The identity verification process will be performed through the Virtual Passport technology enabling citizens to securely manage their identity information through their smartphone, read by a Seamless onboarding device supported by the User Continuous Behavioral Authentication (i.e., “multi-biometric and multi-behavioral continuous authentication” technologies, ed.) that will ensure the identity checking. At arrival at a border crossing point on road, train or ship, the vehicle and the luggage or cargo are processed through Unobtrusive X-Ray scanning technology, UAV-assisted image processing, Faceless Person Counting and AI based data analytics.”
A crucial role is also played by “The Decision Support System,” which “computes a risk score for each of the passengers and vehicles crossing the border, in order to either allow them to seamlessly cross the border without stopping or to alert the Border Authorities regarding the need for a deeper inspection guided by the analytics and the risk score of the platform. The Border Authorities are informed through the platform’s dedicated user-friendly interfaces about results of processed data in order to easily identify cases of identity fraud, smuggling and human trafficking. The platform is applicable for both land and sea scenarios including on the road, at the port and in the train.”
All such activities will allegedly be performed in compliance “with the EU legal framework, including the Ethical principles in research, GDPR and the EU AI Act provisions.”
This would allow “to proactively scan vehicles for the detection of illegal immigration and potential vehicles modifications through high resolution and thermal cameras”, “to count and identify people outside or inside a vehicle (car, bus, train, boat) combined with crowd behaviour in a GDPR compliant way without the use of face characteristics” and “to automate the identification of travellers and vehicles at risk through a large set of modalities in order to reduce queues and improve the security at the borders.”
“Sister projects” were revealed in April 2024. They include FLEXI-cross, I-SEAMORE, Melchior, BorderUAS, and BAG-INTEL (a Horizon Europe research project developing a highly effective and efficient AI-based solution to support customs authorities in the detection of contraband in baggage). No details are publicly provided as to what substantiates this sisterhood, at the time of writing.
ODYSSEUS is part of the BES Cluster.
A 3 hours YouTube video shows the “FCT and BM Projects Synergy Workshop” from 12 March 2024, featuring “several key presentations and discussions involving multiple European Commission-funded projects centred on crime prevention, border management, and security research. The primary focus was on TENSOR, FLEXIcross, ETHOS, and ODYSSEUS projects.”
According to its website, the “ODYSSEUS platform will be demonstrated with through 3 real life scenarios which will include clear, realistic, and verifiable short- and long-term goals”:
1) at land (to demonstrate “the seamless border crossing offered by the ODYSSEUS framework in a real setting both in terms of identity verification but also in terms of detecting illegal goods”);
2) at sea (“In order to ensure a seamless border crossing in terms of identity verification and vehicle/luggage screening without stopping the travelers or vehicles” in a “water border scenario”), and
3) on train (we only know that “It will be executed in a real-world situation and will be split into two separate scenarios”).
All further details, including pilot locations, are yet to be publicly shared at the time of writing.
Nonetheless, the Consortium and Frontex are already working on the deployment.
In an article by Monica Florea (Project coordinator) and Dana Oniga (Project Manager of ODYSSEUS from SIMAVI) from December 2023, it says that “by 2025, if ODYSSEUS technologies are adopted, we can expect reduced costs for border authorities and citizens, increased detection capabilities, and reduced time for vehicle, luggage, or cargo control.” This promise is reflected in the motto “ODYSSEUS – WHY CROSSING BORDERS WILL NO LONGER BE AN ODYSSEY FROM 2025”
The ODYSSEUS project participated in the Horizon Border Security Projects workshop hosted by Frontex at its headquarters in Warsaw, Poland, on 14 December 2023. The “primary objectives” of five Horizon Border Management projects were showcased there “to both Frontex and representatives from the border guard authorities of various Member States”, says a report on the ODYSSEUS website. These included ODYSSEUS, I-SEAMORE, MELCHIOR, FLEXI-CROSS, and EURMARS. The article explains: “The Frontex representatives hosting the event expressed their strong endorsement for the effective adoption of results from the presented projects and underscored the pivotal role of innovative technologies and Digital Virtual Passports in achieving seamless border crossings. A key takeaway from the meeting was the shared commitment to enhance collaboration between Horizon Border Management projects, with Frontex representatives being invited to the demonstration of the pilots.”
ODYSSEUS will not be completed until August 2025. It has been running for more than 18 months at the time of writing, and only produced one public deliverable (the Dissemination, Communication, Exploitation and Stakeholders Engagement Report, D6.1). The project’s overview says that ODYSSEUS “aims to protect passengers’ fundamental rights while promoting the security and integrity of the European space by minimizing unauthorized cross-border movements of people and goods. ODYSSEUS also intends to optimize the safety of customs and supply chain by improving the prevention, detection, deterrence, and fight against crime involving goods flows across EU external border crossing points and through the supply chain, reducing disruption to trade flows.”
The portrayal of the new technologies as necessary to manage complexities of border-crossings and the risks associated with them is evidently solutionist: The “comprehensive framework for improving border checks performed by authorities while also making travel easier for citizens who will be identified through multi-behavioral and biometric mechanisms” that “which will make crossing borders quicker and simpler.”
Work Package 7 sets out “ethics requirements” that the project must comply with. However, no ethics-related deliverable is accessible yet.
The project website’s Press Release section presents a survey that is designed to understand users’ experiences with border surveillance and procedures. The questions include: “What border control systems or technologies have you encountered during your international border crossings”; “How would you rate the effectiveness of these systems or technologies”; and “Are there any additional technologies or systems that you think could improve the international border crossing experience?”
Section 2 consists of two questions: 1) “How would you rate/consider the following systems/technologies as invasive regarding the right to privacy?” and 2) “How would you rate/consider the following systems/technologies as invasive regarding the right to non-discrimination?”
To be implemented technologies include: biometrics (i.e., storing and comparing fingerprints and facial characteristics), document scanners at borders;, body check-up (X-ray and manual) at the entrance of a security area, unmanned Vehicle Systems (UVS) for surveillance, biometric passport, closed-circuit television (CCTV) at border crossings, automatic face image recognition, physical barriers, License Plate Recognition (LPR), passenger scanning (i.e., naked machines), eavesdropping (e.g., electronic listening device, intercepting telephones, etc.).
There is a notable absence from the project’s “targeted audiences”: non-citizens.
