15 ms·

Detroit’s new personalized flight information board is straight out of sci-fi

144 points by notacoward 4y ago

technothrasher 4y ago
This seems more like a dystopian technology demo than a useful advancement in airport signage.
- aerovistae 4y ago
  Disagree, I think it's incredibly cool.
  - pbourke 4y ago
    How is it adding utility vs the usual ways that you can access this information? (Paper boarding pass, mobile phone, public flights board)
    - pessimizer 4y ago
      It adds the utility of normalizing controversial uses of technology and tracking that are usually hidden behind the scenes out of fear of upsetting people. Now, if laws on facial recognition are proposeded that keep this from working, there will be an army of millions of commenters protesting the government overreach that is restraining innovation.
    - aerovistae 4y ago
      I'm not arguing that it's crucial, but I think it's a neat convenience. Everyone has spent time scanning through that list trying to find their flight to see what gate it's at and whether it's leaving on time, information that can change and may not be up to date on the boarding pass.
  - okennedy 4y ago
    A technology demo can be both incredibly cool, while still having significant negative implications. 16-year old me dreamed about this sort of tech. Current me has seen Minority Report and is not comfortable with faceless corporations unilaterally deciding they want an intimate, personal relationship with me. Technology is a tool, neither intrinsically good nor evil. Unfortunately the tech industry has, as a whole, shown a stark disrespect for the needs or desires of individuals. Tech culture values monetization over individual autonomy, and that shows little sign of changing. Unfortunately, without a dramatic culture shift, it will continue to be the case that otherwise amazingly incredibly cool tech like this gets subverted to force more "personal" interactions.
GekkePrutser 4y ago
Cool tech, I have to say. But... Clearly it opens up a big can of privacy worms. I suppose at an airport this will work because nobody really has any expectation of privacy there anymore. The question is more about what's next. I'm walking through the local high street and the signs try to point me to the local Ecco shop because I bought my shoes more than a year ago?
- dzhiurgis 4y ago
  What I’d be concerned isn’t improved ads, but lack of such tech in healthcare and civil services. All these cameras should be able to predict heart attack, let alone calling ambulance and immediately knowing your entire health history and next best action…
  - GekkePrutser 4y ago
    Even if it's used 'for good' I'd have a problem with that. And not just me, in the Netherlands we had a huge public discussion about a central health register, and the end result was an opt-in which many people didn't do. As far as I know it's still opt-in. I never opted in, though I don't live there anymore. And here in Spain I don't have a choice, they're not as privacy-conscious here.
    - dzhiurgis 4y ago
      Go to a private clinic and you’ll have your privacy If healthcare is socialise IMO it’s worth contributing your data, not only taxes.
      - dredmorbius 4y ago
        Oddlly enough, private clinics mandate signing over data to be shared with "parners" on a regular basis in non-negotiable patient service "agreements".
        dzhiurgis 4y ago
mmaunder 4y ago
The underlying tech is pretty cool: https://www.misappliedsciences.com/home/technology.html https://www.misappliedsciences.com/home/technology.html Those concerned about privacy should consider that you’re already on camera being captured and having algorithms applied to your likeness. The only change with this implementation is that you’re aware of it, and directly benefit from facial recognition and location tracking.
- GauntletWizard 4y ago
  The old adage that "what you don't know can't hurt you" refers only to problems of the mind. For all that I do believe you have no expectation of privacy in public, I believe that enables undirected actions, like you being photographed in the back of someone's photo, or even some amount of directed action, like someone taking a picture of you because you look funny and they're gonna laugh at you. I do believe that omnidirectional actions like "Have map of what everyone is doing in the public space" are actually quite different and open for debate. I don't have a problem with this technology being applied at Amazon Go stores - a specific contract exists between you and Amazon that they're tracking you inside their private space. I don't have a problem with Walmart installing the same technology, but I would choose not to patronize Walmart because of it. I do have a problem with Walmart installing it looking out onto the street and then selling the data to anyone who wants to know positions of passerbys in New York. Ultimately, there is some power imbalance here, and technology should act as agents for humanity, not as it's overlord.
- dclowd9901 4y ago
  Gotta love the name of the company
- akira2501 4y ago
  > and directly benefit from facial recognition and location tracking. A fixed board in a fixed location with fixed information inside of a giant terminal? While I'm walking around with a computer in my pocket that also doubles as a telephone? And in the video, this is apparently the same phone I just used to check in? This feels like there's zero actual benefit to me. It's maybe a great benefit to whoever makes the boards and whoever at the airport is getting the kickback.
munchler 4y ago
I assume that somewhere in the fine print, you are agreeing to have your location data shared with their commercial "partners"?
- yucky 4y ago
  Well of course, but if you have nothing to hide why would that bother you? /s
cmroanirgo 4y ago
> Delta passengers can opt in to the experience by scanning their boarding pass once they are through the security checkpoint in Concourse A of DTW’s McNamara Terminal. Customers enrolled in Delta’s biometric digital identity program need only show their faces to a camera at the kiosk. At this point, despite the apparent good use case in this instance, we technologists should be exceedingly mindful of the dystopian future we're giving our overlords. I know many here on HN are aware of the great social responsibility, but all too many of us are willing to implement this stuff for the lolz or the money alone. Do I want cameras recording me and going through an increasingly disproportionate number if ML systems? What about the data? Where does it go? Who is in control of any one singular ML system running these things? What happens when that company starts failing? My data, my biometrics... all sold to the highest bidder.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- riedel 4y ago
  For a research prototype we just used a mobile phones acceleration sensors to couple a phone (who uses printed boarding passes) with the tracker. No biometrics needed. Tracking does not survive the camera context. Considering that there are alternatives you really wonder why they care about biometrics. You could probably also generate other types of markers that are stable without needing sth you have to stick with for the rest of your life...
- dylan604 4y ago
  >we technologists should be exceedingly mindful of the dystopian future we're giving our overlords Look, at this point, you know it is inevitable that this dystopian future you speak of is going to happen. Why not just embrace it now and live worry free since you will no longer need to be concerned about it happening. You're less productive to the overloards when you're stressed. /s
- matt123456789 4y ago
  Sounds like wasted effort. When’s the last time you heard about a technology not being invented because developers decided it shouldn’t be invented? As long as there’s a legal business case, you’ll find someone who can and will build it for you. But I agree with the sentiment. I think that the right place to concentrate your efforts if you don’t like a technology is through the legal system. Regulations and laws.
awiesenhofer 4y ago
"Customers enrolled in Delta’s biometric digital identity program need only show their faces to a camera at the kiosk." That sentence reminds me of sci-fi way more than the actual board. Could be "straight out" of a 90ies Neal Stephenson novel like Snow Crash, and kinda reads equally dystopian.
fourthark 4y ago
Sure, we shouldn’t expect privacy from cameras and biometrics. But doesn’t this mean that 20 people behind you see where you are going, your flier points, etc? I’d find that embarrassing, personally.
- bronco21016 4y ago
  Isn’t the idea of the tech that only the intended person sees it? When I’ve walked by I haven’t caught a glimpse of anyone’s info. I haven’t walked up close to a person viewing it though. It must have some FOV that allows “spying”.
- hadleybelter 4y ago
  The point of this technology is that the 20 people behind cannot see the same thing you do. This isn't just "Jane is walking past, let's display Jane's information on the TV now". The point is that this technology has pixels that selectively beam Jane's information to Jane and only Jane, while simultaneously beaming OtherPerson's information to OtherPerson and only OtherPerson. It's very cool technology. The one thing I don't see any information on is how precise it can be (like if I'm standing directly next to Jane rather than 15 feet away, will I see Jane's info?).
  - fourthark 4y ago
    Interesting, thanks. I wonder how narrow the angle of personalized viewing is.
    - bmitc 4y ago
      This is me just completely guessing, but I would assume it's probably pretty close to how close someone would need to be standing next to you to see the same information on the phone.
  - jkestner 4y ago
    Since we don’t see any details on the precision, it’s hard to make the statement that others can’t see your information. If this is a lenticular display, then anyone standing in your line of sight will see what you see. I’m more concerned about protecting my privacy from organizations, but I think privacy concerns regarding other viewers can be addressed by not displaying anything personally tied to you. The name is cute for a demo, but I don’t need to see my name, just my flight. I’ll know it’s mine.
a-dub 4y ago
interesting. kinda like 5g beam forming for light rays. i wonder what the pixels are? something that looks like repurposed mems projector elements maybe? one hundred rays per pixel is pretty impressive. it would be fun to try and confuse the head tracking/labeling.
JorgeGT 4y ago
Straight from the Minority Report 2002 movie. Add a beamforming loudspeaker array for personalized audio and that's it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiDMlFycNrw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiDMlFycNrw
mgraczyk 4y ago
The photo and initial description are more dystopian than reality. I found this video showing the screen at the airport. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ECXBi2w9kZU https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ECXBi2w9kZU People who are concerned about things like privacy should remember that humans are incredibly adaptable socially. We quickly learn and socialize norms around new technology. For example, people will learn to avoid crowding when viewing screens like this. The amount of space and privacy people give one another will depend on the customs and personal boundaries that already exist in the local culture. It's already culturally unacceptable in some places to read a newspaper over a stranger's shoulder. People will learn the same behaviors for this. Also, it's opt-in.
- alfalfasprout 4y ago
  And here comes the politically incorrect angle-- the US has a lot of immigrants coming from cultures where personal boundaries aren't quite respected and don't make an effort to adopt US norms around it. Granted, a subset of Americans don't respect personal space either. This is a tricky problem to tackle because, fundamentally, things that rely on particular social behavior to work may not work as intended. It's analogous to how in certain parts of the country you could leave your door unlocked and farm stands would have boxes you could put money in and no one would steal it. Try doing that in San Francisco... In all likelihood, that will be the crux of making something like this viable everywhere.
  - wolverine876 4y ago
    Painting every immigrant in the US with one broad brush? And somehow connecting bad behavior (or behavior you don't like) with their immigration status? Can you provide any evidence for this incredible claim? I regularly interact with many immigrants from many cultures, and have for many years in many places. I've been to the countries many immigrants come from. I see none of this. They aren't animals, they are people as smart as you and me; even when they are used to different norms, they are intelligent social human beings, they can see what's going on, and they adjust - just like you do. Perhaps the cultures where they come from are better behaved than what you were raised in. Everyone in the US, with few exceptions, comes from immigrants. There is no one 'culture' in the US; it changes by space and time, even from me to my housemate to my neighbor. Drive across the country and see. Look how US culture has changed in just the last 6 years. > Try doing that in San Francisco... What on earth does that have to do with immigrants?
sixothree 4y ago
I wonder if this could be used on smaller devices to correct vision issues? Maybe it could recognize I don't have my glasses and adjust accordingly.
kosyblysk666 4y ago
bee_rider 4y ago
It is a neat idea. Privacy is important, but at the airport we assume we've basically signed up to be poked, prodded, probed, scanned, and tracked, right? Might as well do some neat magic tricks as a side effect. For me at least, this will remain novel and impressive, because try to minimize the amount of time I spend at the airport (I don't actually want to be poked, prodded, scanned, and tracked).
Group_B 4y ago
Helped assemble the lenses and lcd’s for these. Currently working on the next version which will have bigger lenses and LCD’s. Better pixel resolution.
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  What's your price to sabotage development? Asking ... for a friend.
rbanffy 4y ago
It’s out of sci-fi, in the sense sci-fi’s job is to prevent the future more than predict it. Nice job everyone.
myself248 4y ago
Privacy issues being what they are... ...I also LOVE the idea that the sign could tell ME which way to go, instead of presenting 60 ways to go and I have to figure out which one applies to me. Airports are confusing monsters and there's always an element of time pressure. This is brilliant. Except the time until it gets used for something much more dystopian is probably measured in hours now.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  One thing I don't really get is why they don't take advantage of the screen that everyone already has in their pockets - and which has built-in tracking to boot. All they need is an app. And this way it would be totally opt-in by installing the app. I know this tech is also opt-in, however, the facial recognition itself is seeing everyone, even the people who haven't opted in, and is probably tracking them. Just doesn't know who they are.
  - chrischen 4y ago
    It tracks via motion detectors, not facial recognition. I’m not totally sure but it seems the facial recognition is just part of the initial authorization step. So it’s not reading your face in front of the display to determine what to show, but rather you scan your pass and verify your identity, then walk around the airport where it tracks your position to keep track of who you are and where, and when you then stand in front of this display it knows where you are relative to the display which can deliver a directionally targeted image to your eyes.
    - woojoo666 4y ago
      I feel like that would contradict the information in this article, which says: > Ng said. “In this demo, as soon as you walk out of the viewing area of the display, the system forgets everything, and all of the data is purged.” If the system tracked you throughout the entire airport, it would not be forgetting you once you walk out of the viewing area. Not to mention, the airport would lose track of you once you enter a bathroom, which afaik don't have cameras
DrTung 4y ago
I remember as a kid reading Foundation by Asimov, when you arrived in Trantor, you had a boarding pass with a glowing arrow pointing which way to go. Almost there now.
gumby 4y ago
I can get that info by glancing at my watch, which already provides a private, personalized experience. Far more useful would be making the effort to have the watch guide me to the proper gate than personalizing the public display of something I probably already know. It’s like the punchline of a joke about management consultants.
- simonh 4y ago
  Because of course everyone who goes through every airport knows which app to get for each airport, and thinks to install it in advance. My mother can barely use her phone as it is, just as a phone. Not everyone lives in the smart phone/watch power user tech bubble.
  - gumby 4y ago
    She probably carries a paper boarding pass with all the info she needs, and probably hasn’t registered her face with the airline either. Start with the early adopters and then broaden into the early majority…your mum will be at the other end of that bell curve. This is classic Crossing the Chasm stuff.
    - simonh 4y ago
      A paper pass won’t tell her when the plane is ready to board, or whether to go left or right. Registering for the display board is done at the airport, they offer you the option and you scan your pass and look at the camera. That’s it. I’m not saying don’t offer an app, but it baffles me that you think they should not offer this.
      - gumby 4y ago
        Your mother has a workflow that she’s presumably used for many decades. (I used to use it too): paper boarding pass and look up your flight(/train whatever) on the schedule board. That system will continue to work (for her and for me). So when introducing a new feature set consider who your adopter audience will be. When think of my own mother she wouldn’t bother to register her face (but does demand a paper BP). She doesn’t want to change her work flow, though she does use her phone for more than calling. I on the other hand, am willing (even interested) in changing to make my life simpler. Im not saying “make gumby’s life better” specifically, but that effort would be better spent on infrastructure. BTW though I wasn’t clear, I wasn’t thinking of an airline-specific app, but on in-terminal localization that would interact with my map software in a privacy-protecting way. Delta’s gimmick is not privacy protecting (what happens to that face registration?)
modeless 4y ago
> after more than five years in what he described as “stealth mode,” the company worked out a propriety [sic] method of getting the pixels of a display board to send different content to each viewer. Um, lenticular lenses? Those aren't proprietary. Children's toys have lenticular lenses on them. They were patented in 1912. The idea of using them to display different images to different viewers is also not remotely new. Cool concept to use it for personalized airport signage, but the face recognition required for it to work well is going to be hard to swallow in the current privacy climate. Better not install one of these in Illinois!
- fortran77 4y ago
  > Um, lenticular lenses? Those aren't proprietary. Children's toys have lenticular lenses on them. They were patented in 1912. The idea of using them to display different images to different viewers is also not remotely new. That's absolutely not what this is. Imagine each pixel is a high-resolution projector.
  - modeless 4y ago
    > Imagine each pixel is a high-resolution projector. ... that describes a lenticular lens array. Each lens takes a section of the screen and projects it out just as a projector does. A lenticular array of cylindrical lenses does it in only one dimension. It's possible they are using a microlens array to do it in two dimensions instead of one, but the concept is very similar and also not unique.
davesque 4y ago
I don't want to be a naysayer, but my reaction to this is not positive. First of all, I wouldn't want random people in the airport to see my personal information. I guess the display can show different information depending on where you're standing, but I don't imagine this works perfectly. Second, facial recognition is creepy. Some comments are arguing that this isn't a problem because you're already being tracked anyway by other cameras around the airport. But just because it's already happening doesn't make it okay. Third, it seems technically impractical. It takes the relatively simple task of picking a flight out of a list and turns it into something brittle and error prone. I get that the technology is impressive in a way. And my first two points are perhaps less concerning since the Delta program is opt in. But overall it seems to cost more than it's worth. Maybe that makes this more of a marketing gimmick than anything.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  > First of all, I wouldn't want random people in the airport to see my personal info If I understand the tech, they have to be right on top of you to see what you see. Each display is supposed to be able to show 100 feeds to 100 different people at the same time. Totally agree with you on the creepiness though.
  - davesque 4y ago
    Yeah, who knows? Maybe the positional display tech works better than I imagine. I guess if it could narrow the viewing angle down to the eyes on a person's face, there wouldn't be much of a concern. But I have so many other questions. For example, does standing further away from it effectively broaden the viewing angle for a specific view? Maybe that could lead again to privacy issues. But I should admit that the viewing angle tech is pretty neat. Maybe there could be other interesting applications for it.
    - eastbound 4y ago
      And if the system is not properly re-tuned some of the time, like most tech that requires precision, could it happen that it shows the information exactly 5° next to you, but never to you?
bri3d 4y ago
System is described in US Patent 10778962. The claims are actually written pretty well. It's like looking through a bunch of magnifying glasses at an LCD. Depending on what angle and distance you look through the magnifying glass from, you see a magnified image of one specific area (a diffuser is employed so you don't end up peeping the sub-pixels, which is also why the color depth is very limited). With detailed tracking of your location, the software can switch the pixels underneath the magnifying glasses you're looking through to produce a coherent image at a subsampled resolution. https://patents.google.com/patent/US10778962B2/en?oq=10778962 https://patents.google.com/patent/US10778962B2/en?oq=1077896...
- tpmx 4y ago
  Their first prototype used a grid of off-the-shelf portable "pico projectors" (half a million pixels per projector was mentioned, so perhaps each pixel had 800x600 "rays"). https://youtu.be/p1b3wEsFlCY?t=913 https://youtu.be/p1b3wEsFlCY?t=913 (2018)
  - bri3d 4y ago
    The patent mentions this system a few times, and it sounds like they moved away from this model due to mainly cost/benefit and scale up reasons. Laser pico projectors are certainly an easy way to do this, they're literally just a laser aimed using a mirror and you can steer a beam exactly where you want it. I'm surprised they're not hacked on more as they're probably one of the coolest gadgets around technology wise.
knoke 4y ago
I guess these are the relevant patents: https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Albert+Han+Ng https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Albert+Han+Ng
tjr225 4y ago
Did they ever stop to consider that everyone is already carrying a screen that only they can see in their pockets?
helipad 4y ago
I know there are privacy concerns with this kind of thing but I think it's a nice use of technology. I recently came back into the US as a Global Entry member and didn't even have to get my passport out of my pocket. I'm not even a US national. Face scan as the e-gate and straight through. The scanner didn't even have a lag, it probably already predicted I was walking up before I did. No awkwardly scanning to get the right angle, or putting my passport in multiple times to scan. No human in the loop. Are there terrifying ways that could be bad? Absolutely. Technically impressive and convenient? Yep.
drblast 4y ago
This seems like the first step to implementing personalized ads everywhere. Opt out? You get the most annoying ones.
- nmeagent 4y ago
  At this point any personalized ads I see are effectively ads for a competing product (possibly the always competitive nothing product). I'm personally already pissed off by Internet surveillance capitalism; if tone deaf ad firms want to try and bring personalized psychological manipulation into public spaces as well, I doubt it will have quite the reaction that they expect.
mleonhard 4y ago
This company will bring personalized ads to the highway, bus stops, malls, and restaurants. They will make a lot of money and use most of it to record what we look at and how long, and store it forever. I predict that these ads will eventually be like Tiktok. Every moment that your eyes pause on an ad will be recorded. They will use the data to pick videos that are better at holding your attention. The videos will be super interesting or shocking, with ads interspersed. Eventually, the system will use deepfake tech to insert ad content into your tailored videos. As you walk past a shoe store, your eyes linger for a second on a particular shoe style. Half a block later, the bus stop ad shows the latest Tiktok fad video but the people are wearing the shoe style you looked at. Eventually, the video ads will cause a lot of vehicle accidents and will get banned on roads. Then the billboards will show static ads, but still personalized and still recording your gaze as you drive by. Some people will die from exposure after standing in front of ads for too long. There will be lawsuits. School districts will sue to have the adboards removed from near schools. Vending machines will let you pay by watching ads. The ad companies will categorize people as desirable and undesirable. When an undesirable is standing in front of a billboard, the system will show a blank screen or a disgusting video to make them leave. With so much face & eyeball data, the billboards can pick audio or a video+audio tracks to maximize their income. A group of teenagers are watching a music video on the board. The audio suddenly switches to an ad for expensive men's clothing, just as a wealthy man walks around the corner in earshot of the board. Directional audio tech will add personalized audio to the adboards. Adboards will increase volume to reach people across the street. Cities will get much louder. Vandals will use spray glue to damage directional audio systems. Personally, I don't want my physical movements and eye gaze recorded. Only regulation can prevent it. We need regulation now, before the companies get too powerful.
- blantonl 4y ago
  This sounds freaking awesome. Wait. Actually... no it doesn't. The more I think about it, this sounds freaking terrifying.
  - adrianmonk 4y ago
    It sounds terrific... in both the original (terror-inducing) and modern (amazing) senses of the word.
post_break 4y ago
This makes me think of the Nintendo 3Ds. It tracks your head and makes the image 3D. Only this is much more of a privacy screen style 3D. Nifty.
anigbrowl 4y ago
Once a customer logs in, they are identified by the motion sensors as a specific moving object tied to a specific customer record Dislike. Also, I think this will have deleterious effects on the general level of mental health. Misapplied science, indeed.
- Schroedingersat 4y ago
  Don't worry. It won't be limited to airports for long. Many malls and supermarkets are already blanketed with facial recognition, and there have been several attempts already to make beamformed audio ads more common.
PaulMest 4y ago
I was just in the DTW airport a few weeks ago and experienced this firsthand! The representative said there can be up to 100 people in this large-ish rectangular area and each person can only see their details and nobody else's (even as everybody moves around). Everybody outside of the rectangle sees generic information. I'm generally pretty good with figuring out how things work. I could figure out the tracking piece, but I definitely didn't figure out how they could so accurately make sure that I could read my info everywhere within that box. There are some other comments here that describe how it works -- pretty cool! I was definitely amazed at how well this actually worked with about 10 other people also testing it out. Privacy issues aside, this is an amazing experience to be able to be on-the-move and see a giant arrow that points you to exactly where you need to go in an airport you're unfamiliar with.
lucideer 4y ago
So... someone watched Minority Report and didn't get that it was intended to be dystopian... Or didn't care
duxup 4y ago
Can’t I just scan a boarding pass and get the info and not do a bunch of biometric stuff?
mLuby 4y ago
> CEO of Misapplied Sciences, the company that created the product Name is spot on. Facial recognition is too creepy to live.
GoOnThenDoTell 4y ago
I cant imaging anyone actually wants this
dgudkov 4y ago
What exactly problem does it solve?
wrycoder 4y ago
I need one of those displays.
headcanon 4y ago
I actually tried this last week. The way they advertised it sounded like some kind of AR technology but it was pretty vague. I wasn't in a rush to my gate and there wasn't anybody else using it, so I thought "why not?" and scanned my boarding pass, and sure enough, my info appeared on the screen in big letters. I didn't know about the unique properties of the screen, which I suppose are interesting, but it was otherwise pretty underwhelming given it didn't display anything different than what was already on my Delta app. Beyond that, I wasn't personally concerned at any privacy implications at that time (especially given there wasn't anybody around, and if there were they didn't care), but I can definitely understand why others would be put off. It's at best an expensive gimmick. McNamara terminal at DTW is a Delta-only hub so it makes sense Delta would put it there as a marketing stunt.
- __derek__ 4y ago
  McNamara Terminal is also extremely easy to navigate, so it's kind of an odd example.
- bonestamp2 4y ago
  Obviously it's early for the tech, but I could see a day where every screen you look at shows you what you want to see. Maybe you already know your flight info, so you tune that screen to a TV network that you like, or news headlines, weather info, etc. It's nothing our phones can't offer, but phones haven't made TVs obsolete. Large screens are convenient when you phone is in your pocket as you're walking through the terminal, or when you're talking on your phone, etc. Content switching is faster and easier when you have two screens, but now you don't have to carry that second screen, you just borrow the ones that are already there.
  - jerlam 4y ago
    Phones haven't made TVs at home obsolete, but they've definitely made an impact at airports and planes. There are fewer seatback entertainment systems anymore as aircraft have wifi and stream movies to personally owned devices or rent out tablets. Fewer people look at the departure and arrival list because that information is duplicated on the airline app on their phone, which also has their boarding pass. No one is watching CNN on the TVs at their gate; everyone's looking at their phone.
etaioinshrdlu 4y ago
Does this use holographic displays similar to Looking Glass to show a different image to people in differnet spots?
omginternets 4y ago
How do I point something out to my wife?
Isamu 4y ago
I’m not sure people are getting that the display is tracking your position, recognizing you, and displaying in such a way that you see something different and customized from people to your left and to your right. They see their own customized info, or the default.
est31 4y ago
The issue with technology trying to be "smart" is that it's all nice and stuff as long as you are within the designed use case of it, but once you step outside, there's an issue. For example, what will the display do if you are a traveller and some other traveller approaches you and asks you which gate their flight is? If there were a non-personalized display, it'd be easy: you would just look up their flight on the table. Now all you can do is to tell the traveller to look at the personalized billboard. But what if they have bad eyesight and can't read it? Maybe also the angular resolution of the billboard is not good enough to show a different thing to them so it shows the same to you as it shows to them, which might be your flight, or might be their flight. Another such example is the issue of deadnaming trans people. They will probably be not happy at all to see their disliked birth name printed on such a large billboard, even if it's only visible to them. If the name is visible to the people they travel with, it can cause even more issues.
dredmorbius 4y ago
The next North Korean binary-agent "meet you at the gate" assassination team will greatly appreciate this added convenience. Particularly the enabled-by-default opt-out version. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Kim_Jong-nam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Kim_Jong-nam
WalterBright 4y ago
They could just text me with the flight info, and ping me when it's time to board.
simondotau 4y ago
How is this better than looking at my phone (which shows me up-to-date flight info right on my lock screen)? Sure the big screen can be a more passive experience, but it’s also spatially limited. I can look at my phone regardless where I am in the terminal.
hnbear 4y ago
For people wondering about eye-ball tracking on an ad-focused implementation of this, I’m curious how long it’ll be till glasses wearers can get a coating to block it. My glasses already come with coatings for various other things (UV, anti-reflective, scratch resistance, anti-fog, blue-blocking, mirroring, etc) Some already cause issues with eye-scanning. Eg FaceID on iOS doesn’t always work with polarizing lenses. I’d love an extra privacy-focused “screw up facial recognition/eye scanning tech” option.
uptown 4y ago
Why not just send the info to the phone? You know / the device I had to scan to start this whole thing? The big screen seems superfluous given the personalization capabilities of the cellphone including helping you navigate after you’ve walked away from the display.
- mynameisvlad 4y ago
  You can also scan a paper boarding pass. Whether from a kiosk or printed out. Not everyone uses mobile boarding passes. Some airports also don't have good (or any, although that's increasingly rarer) free wifi and not everyone has roaming. Some people don't have smart phones at all.

144 points by notacoward 4y ago

technothrasher 4y ago

This seems more like a dystopian technology demo than a useful advancement in airport signage.

aerovistae 4y ago
Disagree, I think it's incredibly cool.
- pbourke 4y ago
  How is it adding utility vs the usual ways that you can access this information? (Paper boarding pass, mobile phone, public flights board)
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    It adds the utility of normalizing controversial uses of technology and tracking that are usually hidden behind the scenes out of fear of upsetting people. Now, if laws on facial recognition are proposeded that keep this from working, there will be an army of millions of commenters protesting the government overreach that is restraining innovation.
  - aerovistae 4y ago
    I'm not arguing that it's crucial, but I think it's a neat convenience. Everyone has spent time scanning through that list trying to find their flight to see what gate it's at and whether it's leaving on time, information that can change and may not be up to date on the boarding pass.
- okennedy 4y ago
  A technology demo can be both incredibly cool, while still having significant negative implications. 16-year old me dreamed about this sort of tech. Current me has seen Minority Report and is not comfortable with faceless corporations unilaterally deciding they want an intimate, personal relationship with me. Technology is a tool, neither intrinsically good nor evil. Unfortunately the tech industry has, as a whole, shown a stark disrespect for the needs or desires of individuals. Tech culture values monetization over individual autonomy, and that shows little sign of changing. Unfortunately, without a dramatic culture shift, it will continue to be the case that otherwise amazingly incredibly cool tech like this gets subverted to force more "personal" interactions.

GekkePrutser 4y ago

Cool tech, I have to say. But... Clearly it opens up a big can of privacy worms. I suppose at an airport this will work because nobody really has any expectation of privacy there anymore. The question is more about what's next. I'm walking through the local high street and the signs try to point me to the local Ecco shop because I bought my shoes more than a year ago?

dzhiurgis 4y ago
What I’d be concerned isn’t improved ads, but lack of such tech in healthcare and civil services. All these cameras should be able to predict heart attack, let alone calling ambulance and immediately knowing your entire health history and next best action…
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  Even if it's used 'for good' I'd have a problem with that. And not just me, in the Netherlands we had a huge public discussion about a central health register, and the end result was an opt-in which many people didn't do. As far as I know it's still opt-in. I never opted in, though I don't live there anymore. And here in Spain I don't have a choice, they're not as privacy-conscious here.
  - dzhiurgis 4y ago
    Go to a private clinic and you’ll have your privacy If healthcare is socialise IMO it’s worth contributing your data, not only taxes.
    - dredmorbius 4y ago
      Oddlly enough, private clinics mandate signing over data to be shared with "parners" on a regular basis in non-negotiable patient service "agreements".
      - dzhiurgis 4y ago

mmaunder 4y ago

The underlying tech is pretty cool: https://www.misappliedsciences.com/home/technology.html https://www.misappliedsciences.com/home/technology.html Those concerned about privacy should consider that you’re already on camera being captured and having algorithms applied to your likeness. The only change with this implementation is that you’re aware of it, and directly benefit from facial recognition and location tracking.

GauntletWizard 4y ago
The old adage that "what you don't know can't hurt you" refers only to problems of the mind. For all that I do believe you have no expectation of privacy in public, I believe that enables undirected actions, like you being photographed in the back of someone's photo, or even some amount of directed action, like someone taking a picture of you because you look funny and they're gonna laugh at you. I do believe that omnidirectional actions like "Have map of what everyone is doing in the public space" are actually quite different and open for debate. I don't have a problem with this technology being applied at Amazon Go stores - a specific contract exists between you and Amazon that they're tracking you inside their private space. I don't have a problem with Walmart installing the same technology, but I would choose not to patronize Walmart because of it. I do have a problem with Walmart installing it looking out onto the street and then selling the data to anyone who wants to know positions of passerbys in New York. Ultimately, there is some power imbalance here, and technology should act as agents for humanity, not as it's overlord.
dclowd9901 4y ago
Gotta love the name of the company
akira2501 4y ago
> and directly benefit from facial recognition and location tracking. A fixed board in a fixed location with fixed information inside of a giant terminal? While I'm walking around with a computer in my pocket that also doubles as a telephone? And in the video, this is apparently the same phone I just used to check in? This feels like there's zero actual benefit to me. It's maybe a great benefit to whoever makes the boards and whoever at the airport is getting the kickback.

munchler 4y ago

I assume that somewhere in the fine print, you are agreeing to have your location data shared with their commercial "partners"?

yucky 4y ago
Well of course, but if you have nothing to hide why would that bother you? /s

cmroanirgo 4y ago

> Delta passengers can opt in to the experience by scanning their boarding pass once they are through the security checkpoint in Concourse A of DTW’s McNamara Terminal. Customers enrolled in Delta’s biometric digital identity program need only show their faces to a camera at the kiosk. At this point, despite the apparent good use case in this instance, we technologists should be exceedingly mindful of the dystopian future we're giving our overlords. I know many here on HN are aware of the great social responsibility, but all too many of us are willing to implement this stuff for the lolz or the money alone. Do I want cameras recording me and going through an increasingly disproportionate number if ML systems? What about the data? Where does it go? Who is in control of any one singular ML system running these things? What happens when that company starts failing? My data, my biometrics... all sold to the highest bidder.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
riedel 4y ago
For a research prototype we just used a mobile phones acceleration sensors to couple a phone (who uses printed boarding passes) with the tracker. No biometrics needed. Tracking does not survive the camera context. Considering that there are alternatives you really wonder why they care about biometrics. You could probably also generate other types of markers that are stable without needing sth you have to stick with for the rest of your life...
dylan604 4y ago
>we technologists should be exceedingly mindful of the dystopian future we're giving our overlords Look, at this point, you know it is inevitable that this dystopian future you speak of is going to happen. Why not just embrace it now and live worry free since you will no longer need to be concerned about it happening. You're less productive to the overloards when you're stressed. /s
matt123456789 4y ago
Sounds like wasted effort. When’s the last time you heard about a technology not being invented because developers decided it shouldn’t be invented? As long as there’s a legal business case, you’ll find someone who can and will build it for you. But I agree with the sentiment. I think that the right place to concentrate your efforts if you don’t like a technology is through the legal system. Regulations and laws.

awiesenhofer 4y ago

"Customers enrolled in Delta’s biometric digital identity program need only show their faces to a camera at the kiosk." That sentence reminds me of sci-fi way more than the actual board. Could be "straight out" of a 90ies Neal Stephenson novel like Snow Crash, and kinda reads equally dystopian.

fourthark 4y ago

Sure, we shouldn’t expect privacy from cameras and biometrics. But doesn’t this mean that 20 people behind you see where you are going, your flier points, etc? I’d find that embarrassing, personally.

bronco21016 4y ago
Isn’t the idea of the tech that only the intended person sees it? When I’ve walked by I haven’t caught a glimpse of anyone’s info. I haven’t walked up close to a person viewing it though. It must have some FOV that allows “spying”.
hadleybelter 4y ago
The point of this technology is that the 20 people behind cannot see the same thing you do. This isn't just "Jane is walking past, let's display Jane's information on the TV now". The point is that this technology has pixels that selectively beam Jane's information to Jane and only Jane, while simultaneously beaming OtherPerson's information to OtherPerson and only OtherPerson. It's very cool technology. The one thing I don't see any information on is how precise it can be (like if I'm standing directly next to Jane rather than 15 feet away, will I see Jane's info?).
- fourthark 4y ago
  Interesting, thanks. I wonder how narrow the angle of personalized viewing is.
  - bmitc 4y ago
    This is me just completely guessing, but I would assume it's probably pretty close to how close someone would need to be standing next to you to see the same information on the phone.
- jkestner 4y ago
  Since we don’t see any details on the precision, it’s hard to make the statement that others can’t see your information. If this is a lenticular display, then anyone standing in your line of sight will see what you see. I’m more concerned about protecting my privacy from organizations, but I think privacy concerns regarding other viewers can be addressed by not displaying anything personally tied to you. The name is cute for a demo, but I don’t need to see my name, just my flight. I’ll know it’s mine.

a-dub 4y ago

interesting. kinda like 5g beam forming for light rays. i wonder what the pixels are? something that looks like repurposed mems projector elements maybe? one hundred rays per pixel is pretty impressive. it would be fun to try and confuse the head tracking/labeling.

JorgeGT 4y ago

Straight from the Minority Report 2002 movie. Add a beamforming loudspeaker array for personalized audio and that's it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiDMlFycNrw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiDMlFycNrw

mgraczyk 4y ago

The photo and initial description are more dystopian than reality. I found this video showing the screen at the airport. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ECXBi2w9kZU https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ECXBi2w9kZU People who are concerned about things like privacy should remember that humans are incredibly adaptable socially. We quickly learn and socialize norms around new technology. For example, people will learn to avoid crowding when viewing screens like this. The amount of space and privacy people give one another will depend on the customs and personal boundaries that already exist in the local culture. It's already culturally unacceptable in some places to read a newspaper over a stranger's shoulder. People will learn the same behaviors for this. Also, it's opt-in.

alfalfasprout 4y ago
And here comes the politically incorrect angle-- the US has a lot of immigrants coming from cultures where personal boundaries aren't quite respected and don't make an effort to adopt US norms around it. Granted, a subset of Americans don't respect personal space either. This is a tricky problem to tackle because, fundamentally, things that rely on particular social behavior to work may not work as intended. It's analogous to how in certain parts of the country you could leave your door unlocked and farm stands would have boxes you could put money in and no one would steal it. Try doing that in San Francisco... In all likelihood, that will be the crux of making something like this viable everywhere.
- wolverine876 4y ago
  Painting every immigrant in the US with one broad brush? And somehow connecting bad behavior (or behavior you don't like) with their immigration status? Can you provide any evidence for this incredible claim? I regularly interact with many immigrants from many cultures, and have for many years in many places. I've been to the countries many immigrants come from. I see none of this. They aren't animals, they are people as smart as you and me; even when they are used to different norms, they are intelligent social human beings, they can see what's going on, and they adjust - just like you do. Perhaps the cultures where they come from are better behaved than what you were raised in. Everyone in the US, with few exceptions, comes from immigrants. There is no one 'culture' in the US; it changes by space and time, even from me to my housemate to my neighbor. Drive across the country and see. Look how US culture has changed in just the last 6 years. > Try doing that in San Francisco... What on earth does that have to do with immigrants?

sixothree 4y ago

I wonder if this could be used on smaller devices to correct vision issues? Maybe it could recognize I don't have my glasses and adjust accordingly.

kosyblysk666 4y ago

bee_rider 4y ago

It is a neat idea. Privacy is important, but at the airport we assume we've basically signed up to be poked, prodded, probed, scanned, and tracked, right? Might as well do some neat magic tricks as a side effect. For me at least, this will remain novel and impressive, because try to minimize the amount of time I spend at the airport (I don't actually want to be poked, prodded, scanned, and tracked).

Group_B 4y ago

Helped assemble the lenses and lcd’s for these. Currently working on the next version which will have bigger lenses and LCD’s. Better pixel resolution.

dredmorbius 4y ago
What's your price to sabotage development? Asking ... for a friend.

rbanffy 4y ago

It’s out of sci-fi, in the sense sci-fi’s job is to prevent the future more than predict it. Nice job everyone.

myself248 4y ago

Privacy issues being what they are... ...I also LOVE the idea that the sign could tell ME which way to go, instead of presenting 60 ways to go and I have to figure out which one applies to me. Airports are confusing monsters and there's always an element of time pressure. This is brilliant. Except the time until it gets used for something much more dystopian is probably measured in hours now.

GekkePrutser 4y ago
One thing I don't really get is why they don't take advantage of the screen that everyone already has in their pockets - and which has built-in tracking to boot. All they need is an app. And this way it would be totally opt-in by installing the app. I know this tech is also opt-in, however, the facial recognition itself is seeing everyone, even the people who haven't opted in, and is probably tracking them. Just doesn't know who they are.
- chrischen 4y ago
  It tracks via motion detectors, not facial recognition. I’m not totally sure but it seems the facial recognition is just part of the initial authorization step. So it’s not reading your face in front of the display to determine what to show, but rather you scan your pass and verify your identity, then walk around the airport where it tracks your position to keep track of who you are and where, and when you then stand in front of this display it knows where you are relative to the display which can deliver a directionally targeted image to your eyes.
  - woojoo666 4y ago
    I feel like that would contradict the information in this article, which says: > Ng said. “In this demo, as soon as you walk out of the viewing area of the display, the system forgets everything, and all of the data is purged.” If the system tracked you throughout the entire airport, it would not be forgetting you once you walk out of the viewing area. Not to mention, the airport would lose track of you once you enter a bathroom, which afaik don't have cameras

DrTung 4y ago

I remember as a kid reading Foundation by Asimov, when you arrived in Trantor, you had a boarding pass with a glowing arrow pointing which way to go. Almost there now.

gumby 4y ago

I can get that info by glancing at my watch, which already provides a private, personalized experience. Far more useful would be making the effort to have the watch guide me to the proper gate than personalizing the public display of something I probably already know. It’s like the punchline of a joke about management consultants.

simonh 4y ago
Because of course everyone who goes through every airport knows which app to get for each airport, and thinks to install it in advance. My mother can barely use her phone as it is, just as a phone. Not everyone lives in the smart phone/watch power user tech bubble.
- gumby 4y ago
  She probably carries a paper boarding pass with all the info she needs, and probably hasn’t registered her face with the airline either. Start with the early adopters and then broaden into the early majority…your mum will be at the other end of that bell curve. This is classic Crossing the Chasm stuff.
  - simonh 4y ago
    A paper pass won’t tell her when the plane is ready to board, or whether to go left or right. Registering for the display board is done at the airport, they offer you the option and you scan your pass and look at the camera. That’s it. I’m not saying don’t offer an app, but it baffles me that you think they should not offer this.
    - gumby 4y ago
      Your mother has a workflow that she’s presumably used for many decades. (I used to use it too): paper boarding pass and look up your flight(/train whatever) on the schedule board. That system will continue to work (for her and for me). So when introducing a new feature set consider who your adopter audience will be. When think of my own mother she wouldn’t bother to register her face (but does demand a paper BP). She doesn’t want to change her work flow, though she does use her phone for more than calling. I on the other hand, am willing (even interested) in changing to make my life simpler. Im not saying “make gumby’s life better” specifically, but that effort would be better spent on infrastructure. BTW though I wasn’t clear, I wasn’t thinking of an airline-specific app, but on in-terminal localization that would interact with my map software in a privacy-protecting way. Delta’s gimmick is not privacy protecting (what happens to that face registration?)

modeless 4y ago

> after more than five years in what he described as “stealth mode,” the company worked out a propriety [sic] method of getting the pixels of a display board to send different content to each viewer. Um, lenticular lenses? Those aren't proprietary. Children's toys have lenticular lenses on them. They were patented in 1912. The idea of using them to display different images to different viewers is also not remotely new. Cool concept to use it for personalized airport signage, but the face recognition required for it to work well is going to be hard to swallow in the current privacy climate. Better not install one of these in Illinois!

fortran77 4y ago
> Um, lenticular lenses? Those aren't proprietary. Children's toys have lenticular lenses on them. They were patented in 1912. The idea of using them to display different images to different viewers is also not remotely new. That's absolutely not what this is. Imagine each pixel is a high-resolution projector.
- modeless 4y ago
  > Imagine each pixel is a high-resolution projector. ... that describes a lenticular lens array. Each lens takes a section of the screen and projects it out just as a projector does. A lenticular array of cylindrical lenses does it in only one dimension. It's possible they are using a microlens array to do it in two dimensions instead of one, but the concept is very similar and also not unique.

davesque 4y ago

I don't want to be a naysayer, but my reaction to this is not positive. First of all, I wouldn't want random people in the airport to see my personal information. I guess the display can show different information depending on where you're standing, but I don't imagine this works perfectly. Second, facial recognition is creepy. Some comments are arguing that this isn't a problem because you're already being tracked anyway by other cameras around the airport. But just because it's already happening doesn't make it okay. Third, it seems technically impractical. It takes the relatively simple task of picking a flight out of a list and turns it into something brittle and error prone. I get that the technology is impressive in a way. And my first two points are perhaps less concerning since the Delta program is opt in. But overall it seems to cost more than it's worth. Maybe that makes this more of a marketing gimmick than anything.

GekkePrutser 4y ago
> First of all, I wouldn't want random people in the airport to see my personal info If I understand the tech, they have to be right on top of you to see what you see. Each display is supposed to be able to show 100 feeds to 100 different people at the same time. Totally agree with you on the creepiness though.
- davesque 4y ago
  Yeah, who knows? Maybe the positional display tech works better than I imagine. I guess if it could narrow the viewing angle down to the eyes on a person's face, there wouldn't be much of a concern. But I have so many other questions. For example, does standing further away from it effectively broaden the viewing angle for a specific view? Maybe that could lead again to privacy issues. But I should admit that the viewing angle tech is pretty neat. Maybe there could be other interesting applications for it.
  - eastbound 4y ago
    And if the system is not properly re-tuned some of the time, like most tech that requires precision, could it happen that it shows the information exactly 5° next to you, but never to you?

bri3d 4y ago

System is described in US Patent 10778962. The claims are actually written pretty well. It's like looking through a bunch of magnifying glasses at an LCD. Depending on what angle and distance you look through the magnifying glass from, you see a magnified image of one specific area (a diffuser is employed so you don't end up peeping the sub-pixels, which is also why the color depth is very limited). With detailed tracking of your location, the software can switch the pixels underneath the magnifying glasses you're looking through to produce a coherent image at a subsampled resolution. https://patents.google.com/patent/US10778962B2/en?oq=10778962 https://patents.google.com/patent/US10778962B2/en?oq=1077896...

tpmx 4y ago
Their first prototype used a grid of off-the-shelf portable "pico projectors" (half a million pixels per projector was mentioned, so perhaps each pixel had 800x600 "rays"). https://youtu.be/p1b3wEsFlCY?t=913 https://youtu.be/p1b3wEsFlCY?t=913 (2018)
- bri3d 4y ago
  The patent mentions this system a few times, and it sounds like they moved away from this model due to mainly cost/benefit and scale up reasons. Laser pico projectors are certainly an easy way to do this, they're literally just a laser aimed using a mirror and you can steer a beam exactly where you want it. I'm surprised they're not hacked on more as they're probably one of the coolest gadgets around technology wise.

knoke 4y ago

I guess these are the relevant patents: https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Albert+Han+Ng https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Albert+Han+Ng

tjr225 4y ago

Did they ever stop to consider that everyone is already carrying a screen that only they can see in their pockets?

helipad 4y ago

I know there are privacy concerns with this kind of thing but I think it's a nice use of technology. I recently came back into the US as a Global Entry member and didn't even have to get my passport out of my pocket. I'm not even a US national. Face scan as the e-gate and straight through. The scanner didn't even have a lag, it probably already predicted I was walking up before I did. No awkwardly scanning to get the right angle, or putting my passport in multiple times to scan. No human in the loop. Are there terrifying ways that could be bad? Absolutely. Technically impressive and convenient? Yep.

drblast 4y ago

This seems like the first step to implementing personalized ads everywhere. Opt out? You get the most annoying ones.

nmeagent 4y ago
At this point any personalized ads I see are effectively ads for a competing product (possibly the always competitive nothing product). I'm personally already pissed off by Internet surveillance capitalism; if tone deaf ad firms want to try and bring personalized psychological manipulation into public spaces as well, I doubt it will have quite the reaction that they expect.

mleonhard 4y ago

This company will bring personalized ads to the highway, bus stops, malls, and restaurants. They will make a lot of money and use most of it to record what we look at and how long, and store it forever. I predict that these ads will eventually be like Tiktok. Every moment that your eyes pause on an ad will be recorded. They will use the data to pick videos that are better at holding your attention. The videos will be super interesting or shocking, with ads interspersed. Eventually, the system will use deepfake tech to insert ad content into your tailored videos. As you walk past a shoe store, your eyes linger for a second on a particular shoe style. Half a block later, the bus stop ad shows the latest Tiktok fad video but the people are wearing the shoe style you looked at. Eventually, the video ads will cause a lot of vehicle accidents and will get banned on roads. Then the billboards will show static ads, but still personalized and still recording your gaze as you drive by. Some people will die from exposure after standing in front of ads for too long. There will be lawsuits. School districts will sue to have the adboards removed from near schools. Vending machines will let you pay by watching ads. The ad companies will categorize people as desirable and undesirable. When an undesirable is standing in front of a billboard, the system will show a blank screen or a disgusting video to make them leave. With so much face & eyeball data, the billboards can pick audio or a video+audio tracks to maximize their income. A group of teenagers are watching a music video on the board. The audio suddenly switches to an ad for expensive men's clothing, just as a wealthy man walks around the corner in earshot of the board. Directional audio tech will add personalized audio to the adboards. Adboards will increase volume to reach people across the street. Cities will get much louder. Vandals will use spray glue to damage directional audio systems. Personally, I don't want my physical movements and eye gaze recorded. Only regulation can prevent it. We need regulation now, before the companies get too powerful.

blantonl 4y ago
This sounds freaking awesome. Wait. Actually... no it doesn't. The more I think about it, this sounds freaking terrifying.
- adrianmonk 4y ago
  It sounds terrific... in both the original (terror-inducing) and modern (amazing) senses of the word.

post_break 4y ago

This makes me think of the Nintendo 3Ds. It tracks your head and makes the image 3D. Only this is much more of a privacy screen style 3D. Nifty.

anigbrowl 4y ago

Once a customer logs in, they are identified by the motion sensors as a specific moving object tied to a specific customer record Dislike. Also, I think this will have deleterious effects on the general level of mental health. Misapplied science, indeed.

Schroedingersat 4y ago
Don't worry. It won't be limited to airports for long. Many malls and supermarkets are already blanketed with facial recognition, and there have been several attempts already to make beamformed audio ads more common.

PaulMest 4y ago

I was just in the DTW airport a few weeks ago and experienced this firsthand! The representative said there can be up to 100 people in this large-ish rectangular area and each person can only see their details and nobody else's (even as everybody moves around). Everybody outside of the rectangle sees generic information. I'm generally pretty good with figuring out how things work. I could figure out the tracking piece, but I definitely didn't figure out how they could so accurately make sure that I could read my info everywhere within that box. There are some other comments here that describe how it works -- pretty cool! I was definitely amazed at how well this actually worked with about 10 other people also testing it out. Privacy issues aside, this is an amazing experience to be able to be on-the-move and see a giant arrow that points you to exactly where you need to go in an airport you're unfamiliar with.

lucideer 4y ago

So... someone watched Minority Report and didn't get that it was intended to be dystopian... Or didn't care

duxup 4y ago

Can’t I just scan a boarding pass and get the info and not do a bunch of biometric stuff?

mLuby 4y ago

> CEO of Misapplied Sciences, the company that created the product Name is spot on. Facial recognition is too creepy to live.

GoOnThenDoTell 4y ago

I cant imaging anyone actually wants this

dgudkov 4y ago

What exactly problem does it solve?

wrycoder 4y ago

I need one of those displays.

headcanon 4y ago

I actually tried this last week. The way they advertised it sounded like some kind of AR technology but it was pretty vague. I wasn't in a rush to my gate and there wasn't anybody else using it, so I thought "why not?" and scanned my boarding pass, and sure enough, my info appeared on the screen in big letters. I didn't know about the unique properties of the screen, which I suppose are interesting, but it was otherwise pretty underwhelming given it didn't display anything different than what was already on my Delta app. Beyond that, I wasn't personally concerned at any privacy implications at that time (especially given there wasn't anybody around, and if there were they didn't care), but I can definitely understand why others would be put off. It's at best an expensive gimmick. McNamara terminal at DTW is a Delta-only hub so it makes sense Delta would put it there as a marketing stunt.

__derek__ 4y ago
McNamara Terminal is also extremely easy to navigate, so it's kind of an odd example.
bonestamp2 4y ago
Obviously it's early for the tech, but I could see a day where every screen you look at shows you what you want to see. Maybe you already know your flight info, so you tune that screen to a TV network that you like, or news headlines, weather info, etc. It's nothing our phones can't offer, but phones haven't made TVs obsolete. Large screens are convenient when you phone is in your pocket as you're walking through the terminal, or when you're talking on your phone, etc. Content switching is faster and easier when you have two screens, but now you don't have to carry that second screen, you just borrow the ones that are already there.
- jerlam 4y ago
  Phones haven't made TVs at home obsolete, but they've definitely made an impact at airports and planes. There are fewer seatback entertainment systems anymore as aircraft have wifi and stream movies to personally owned devices or rent out tablets. Fewer people look at the departure and arrival list because that information is duplicated on the airline app on their phone, which also has their boarding pass. No one is watching CNN on the TVs at their gate; everyone's looking at their phone.

etaioinshrdlu 4y ago

Does this use holographic displays similar to Looking Glass to show a different image to people in differnet spots?

omginternets 4y ago

How do I point something out to my wife?

Isamu 4y ago

I’m not sure people are getting that the display is tracking your position, recognizing you, and displaying in such a way that you see something different and customized from people to your left and to your right. They see their own customized info, or the default.

est31 4y ago

The issue with technology trying to be "smart" is that it's all nice and stuff as long as you are within the designed use case of it, but once you step outside, there's an issue. For example, what will the display do if you are a traveller and some other traveller approaches you and asks you which gate their flight is? If there were a non-personalized display, it'd be easy: you would just look up their flight on the table. Now all you can do is to tell the traveller to look at the personalized billboard. But what if they have bad eyesight and can't read it? Maybe also the angular resolution of the billboard is not good enough to show a different thing to them so it shows the same to you as it shows to them, which might be your flight, or might be their flight. Another such example is the issue of deadnaming trans people. They will probably be not happy at all to see their disliked birth name printed on such a large billboard, even if it's only visible to them. If the name is visible to the people they travel with, it can cause even more issues.

dredmorbius 4y ago

The next North Korean binary-agent "meet you at the gate" assassination team will greatly appreciate this added convenience. Particularly the enabled-by-default opt-out version. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Kim_Jong-nam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Kim_Jong-nam

WalterBright 4y ago

They could just text me with the flight info, and ping me when it's time to board.

simondotau 4y ago

How is this better than looking at my phone (which shows me up-to-date flight info right on my lock screen)? Sure the big screen can be a more passive experience, but it’s also spatially limited. I can look at my phone regardless where I am in the terminal.

hnbear 4y ago

For people wondering about eye-ball tracking on an ad-focused implementation of this, I’m curious how long it’ll be till glasses wearers can get a coating to block it. My glasses already come with coatings for various other things (UV, anti-reflective, scratch resistance, anti-fog, blue-blocking, mirroring, etc) Some already cause issues with eye-scanning. Eg FaceID on iOS doesn’t always work with polarizing lenses. I’d love an extra privacy-focused “screw up facial recognition/eye scanning tech” option.

uptown 4y ago

Why not just send the info to the phone? You know / the device I had to scan to start this whole thing? The big screen seems superfluous given the personalization capabilities of the cellphone including helping you navigate after you’ve walked away from the display.

mynameisvlad 4y ago
You can also scan a paper boarding pass. Whether from a kiosk or printed out. Not everyone uses mobile boarding passes. Some airports also don't have good (or any, although that's increasingly rarer) free wifi and not everyone has roaming. Some people don't have smart phones at all.