TSA’s new airport security prototype is like a self-checkout at a grocery store : NPR

The brand new airport safety prototype has a video monitor that gives step-by-step directions for passengers to finish screening at their very own tempo.

TSA at Harry Reid Worldwide Airport at Las Vegas


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TSA at Harry Reid Worldwide Airport at Las Vegas


The brand new airport safety prototype has a video monitor that gives step-by-step directions for passengers to finish screening at their very own tempo.

TSA at Harry Reid Worldwide Airport at Las Vegas

An experimental self-service screening system for airport safety checkpoints is being unveiled for testing beginning this month, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) announced on Wednesday in a press launch.

TSA PreCheck passengers on the Harry Reid Worldwide Airport in Las Vegas — which has the one and solely “Innovation Checkpoint” — would be the first to have the choice to make use of the brand new system, which has been in comparison with the self-checkout at a grocery retailer.

“The prototype has a video monitor that gives step-by-step directions for passengers to finish screening at their very own tempo,” in keeping with the discharge.

It eliminates the necessity for Transportation Safety Officers (TSO) to choose up carry-on luggage and trays in addition to the necessity to transfer passengers to a secondary screening if a bag triggers an alarm. Usually there are 5 to seven TSOs at every checkpoint, however for the self-service screening system prototype, there can be two.

Primarily, the system incorporates major and secondary screening in the identical conveyor belt system.

Passengers on the Harry Reid Worldwide Airport in Las Vegas would be the first to make use of the brand new system, which has been in comparison with the self-checkout at a grocery retailer.

TSA at Harry Reid Worldwide Airport at Las Vegas


cover caption

toggle caption

TSA at Harry Reid Worldwide Airport at Las Vegas


Passengers on the Harry Reid Worldwide Airport in Las Vegas would be the first to make use of the brand new system, which has been in comparison with the self-checkout at a grocery retailer.

TSA at Harry Reid Worldwide Airport at Las Vegas

However some aviation safety specialists categorical skepticism. Jeff Worth says that whereas he’s pleased with the automated methods in place in addition to upgraded screening tools, he believes that having fewer officers on the checkpoint will trigger issues.

“I am actually not a proponent of letting individuals simply wander via a checkpoint and determine it out for themselves,” he mentioned. “You are going to watch the strains again up out the door.”

He says the video instruction obtainable will doubtless be inadequate, as leisure passengers who journey maybe yearly will want somebody in individual explaining what to do.

Worth provides that decreasing safety personnel on the checkpoint reduces “the variety of eyes on people who could possibly be awaiting suspicious exercise.”

In the intervening time, the know-how is only a prototype and never being deployed anyplace else, a TSA spokesperson says. It is also purely non-compulsory.

“The variety of airline passengers continues to extend year-over-year, creating a necessity for modern screening options that improve transportation safety and make touring extra environment friendly,” mentioned U.S. Division of Homeland Safety Below Secretary for Science and Know-how Dr. Dimitri Kusnezov in the statement.