If its new experiment pans out, the day may be coming where going through security at the airport looks more like going through the self-checkout lane at the supermarket.
The Transportation Security Administration is testing a self-service system at its “Innovation Checkpoint” at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid Airport, allowing some PreCheck passengers to try the system live. Officials say it’s a long way if ever from widespread implementation, although features from it are likely to show up in future systems over the next few years.
At Las Vegas, the lucky guinea pig travelers step up to a station, where a bin pops up to hold whatever needs to be put in it; a monitor screen shows what must go in. The passenger then pushes it onto the conveyor and moves forward into an automated version of the body-screening station. If there’s a problem, the machine will send the passenger back to fix the problem, say a forgotten phone.
TSA hopes that a system like this will not only speed up processing, but also require fewer officers. TSA is closely monitoring what travelers will think of the experience with the system; John Fortune, program manager for the project, told a reporter for The Points Guy that “This is kind of like speed-dating. The public sees the system, the system sees the public. We’re going to learn so much.”
