Delta Airlines Tests Facial Recognition To Speed Up Baggage Check-In (cnn.com)

Would you let Delta airlines scan your face if it meant you could skip the line to check-in your baggage? An anonymous reader quotes CNN: Delta is testing a face-scanning kiosk for baggage check... It uses facial recognition technology to match your identity to your passport photo. You tag your own bags, pay the fee and drop your luggage on a conveyor belt... Delta will test four of the machines at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport this summer. The airline spent $600,000 on the four kiosks.
A senior staff attorney at the EFF warns this could be a slippery slope -- at what point this morphs into airline surveillance? But a Delta spokerspeson insists the images won't be stored, that they're complying with privacy laws, and that the kiosks could double the number of passengers whisking through their check-in procedures.

Comments

surveylance paranoia

[vivian]

Are you kidding me? The airline knows already knows who you are, what seat you will be sitting in, where you are going and have all your passport details. Do people really think there's any additional information the airline is going to glean from a photo of you other than confirming you are who your passport says you are?

Re: surveylance paranoia

[GrumpySteen]

But that doesn't let them use automation to replace people, cutting salary and benefit costs while upping the CEO's year-end bonus.

Really Improving Speed

[Cbs228]

If the airlines really want to streamline their check-in process, they should focus on creating terminals with a fast, responsive UX. Any time I've used an airport kiosk, I've had to click through anywhere from five to eight screens of information. Each screen is separated by a lengthy "loading" modal dialog box which takes anywhere from two to five seconds to process.

No, I don't want to pay the at-airport price for a first-class upgrade. No, I don't want to change my seat---there are no more seats to be had! No, I don't want a mileage multiplier. To check bags, I have to swipe a credit card they already have on file and wait for it to authorize. At the end of the process, I have to wait another fifteen to twenty seconds for my boarding documents to re-print---regardless of whether or not I need them. All the while, I'm using a touchscreen which has the responsiveness characteristics of a physical keyboard: a physical keyboard that has been dipped in molasses and then coated in gelatin.

As it stands, I suspect that the airlines really have no interest in streamline check-ins. They seem to use it mostly as another opportunity to sell you things.