Airline passenger news and views
22 February 2012 | Sign In
A glimpse into the future of travelling
|
Farah Hesdin Tuesday 17 January 2012 |
How far can technology change our travel experience? The answer is: A LOT. We've already seen major alterations such as an expanding mechanized border control with the e-passport. This is however just the beginning of a long - or rather short - road towards airport mechanization, coupled with a sort of human mechanization…
A complete research report on the subject, From Chaos to Collaboration Report, has just been released this January 2012. The study shows that we can all expect to be travelling absolutely paperless by 2020. The report was put together by the Futures Company, a prime global foresight consultancy firm, and was commissioned by the Amadeus IT Group, an IT solutions expert and transaction processor for the global travel industry.
According to the research, passports will no longer be needed eight years from now: our eyes will take on the same role as eye scans will be the future method for border control. Boarding passes will disappear as our fingerprints will be enough to go on board. Bags won't need to be tagged anymore as they will be ticketed electronically instead so that passengers can track them at all times. Paper-free airports and paper-free passengers: that is the future.
This translates into less stress, shorter queues and reduced uncertainty. You won't have to remember to take crucial documents with you, you won't have to worry about losing your bag and you won't have to queue hours to check-in or pass customs. Coming in or going out of an airport will be done in just a blink of an eye, literarily.
The report says that we will move away from the logistical aspect of traveling to the actual experience of traveling itself. This will be done through collaboration: increasingly more information will be shared between travel providers and travelers and between travelers themselves, which in turn will reduce travel uncertainty and optimize the travel experience.
This might seem like an attractive way of travelling, but the thought of having our body parts registered everywhere and our identity fully 'electronized' through our body can seem quite scary as well…
| Comments | Post a comment |
|
Brian Clark 18 January 2012, 02:35PM | |
Most of my current travel involves the USA, where we have a home. As frequent travellers, we have most things set up in advance. We have Visas which are very useful but it still does not overcome all of the problems. Eye scans will be helpful as long as the iris is checkable. I know at least two people that have Rheumatoid Arthritis which causes deformation of the eye and messes up these scans. | |
| Rating (0) | |
|
Gerry Poole 26 January 2012, 01:22PM | |
As with other identification infrastructure (national residents databases, ID cards, etc.), civil rights activists have voiced concerns that iris-recognition technology might help governments to track individuals beyond their will. | |
| Rating (0) | |
