Slashdot Mirror
Airport Queuing Time Measured With Bluetooth
jones_supa writes "Helsinki-Vantaa airport has established a new method of monitoring security control queue times, utilizing phones with Bluetooth enabled. When a passenger passes through security control, the system calculates the time taken to queue and be served based on time stamps registered by the sensors. The plan is to eventually display all queuing times, which will allow busy passengers to decide whether it would be better to move to another checkpoint."
With cameras everywhere in airports, they can track you anyway. It should be possible to estimate waiting times based on security camera footage. Seems like a good phd topic, judging queue throughput automatically from camera footage, also for cars. Seemingly harmless topic, job guaranteed in the surveillance industry afterwards.
There is only one country ignorant (stupid?) enough to saddle itself with TSA. That country isn't Finland.
That's why I always wear a ski mask when I go out in public. In particular, I find the cameras in banks and airports overly invasive, and I'll wear a stocking underneath the ski mask, just to make sure I can't be identified.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
The original news article about this (in finnish) actually mentions that this is the same method already in use at some other european airports.. but I guess someone wanted to post this as a "new and interesting" item in Slashdot.
If we got rid of the security checkpoints the queue times would be 0... problem solved.
I used to travel to the USA four times a year for ten days or more per trip. I've reduced that to once or twice; cost to the US economy at least $2500 per trip (internal flights, hotels, car rental, restaurants, entertainment), because I hate being treated as a criminal. I am almost certainly not the only one, overall cost to the US economy must be in the many millions.