Delta is testing out a new flight board capable of displaying personalized arrival and departure information at the Detroit Metro Airport. Rather than listing every incoming and outgoing flight, the screen uses facial recognition to show only the information pertinent to you. This could be helpful if you, I don’t know, don’t have the patience to scan the normal board for your flight number?
The screen, which is dubbed the “Parallel Reality Experience,” is capable of displaying separate information for up to 100 people at a time. Each pixel can somehow send “different colors of light in tens of thousands of directions,” Misapplied Sciences, the company behind the board, told Insider.
It’s a futuristic concept, to be sure, but one that requires travelers to provide extra biometric data to Delta and Misapplied Sciences to make it work. And the technology doesn’t exactly fill a need, as far as we can tell.
Quelling privacy concerns —
Misapplied Sciences knew exactly how privacy experts would worry about this use of facial recognition technology. The company is attempting to pre-empt this concern by reminding everyone that it’s opt-in only.
“We’re not ambiently detecting who you are as you’re walking through the airport,” said CEO Albert Ng.
Right now the screen is set up so that your biometric information is deleted as soon as you leave the area. This would only make sense as a temporary testing measure, though — in a more permanent installation, you would want passengers to be able to access flight information without signing up again every time they enter the airport. And that information is where the biometric data becomes a problem.
Simply unnecessary —
Here’s the thing about biometric data: it’s highly sensitive, and, as such, we should be limiting our use of it whenever possible. Privacy advocates have been sounding the alarm on biometric convenience features for many, many years. But unlocking things with your palm or your face feels futuristic enough that a full industry is thriving around the idea.
Even if we remove privacy from the equation (impossible, but let’s consider it), this kind of personalized information board is just unnecessary. Many travelers use their smartphones for up-to-date flight information — that’s about as personalized as it gets — and regular-old departure boards can provide any additional info for those who would rather not pull out their phones.
“It’s simply the tip of the iceberg,” Ng told Insider, a statement that sounds sort of like a threat. “It’s a glimpse into what the future could look like.”
