INDIANAPOLIS — Improving your airport experience is the goal of a company installing LiDAR at Indianapolis International Airport. LiDAR technology will let you know what your wait time is in the security line. That could lead to several conveniences.
“The LiDAR does the active monitoring of where people are moving based on laser beams, said Sam Kamel, President and CEO of iinside, the company chosen to install the devices.
He said the signals are sent to a computer that instantly maps everyone out on a grid. It then translates that into how much time it will take you to get through security. It’s the same technology used in autonomous cars.
LiDAR uses safe, invisible laser beams to detect objects both in motion and at rest, and is more accurate than Bluetooth or Wi-Fi-based indoor location technology, and better at safeguarding passenger identities than stereoscopic cameras, said news release.
For you, it means you get to do what you want to do at the airport, before you go through security, said Kamel.
“Security may not be an obvious problem, like you don’t have hour-long lines. But, as we understand it, passengers at Indianapolis have an option to do a little retail shopping before they go through security,” said Kamel. “One of the incentives here is to make sure as a passenger is going through the retail section, they don’t have to sprint to their gate.”
“It’s all about the customer experience,” said Indianapolis Airport Authority Executive Director Mario Rodriguez. “That’s our primary goal, and the wait time calculators are the latest addition to a range of technology the airport and its partners offer to enhance the travel experience, such as fast-access WiFi, self-bag tag kiosks and even human-powered charging stations.”
The airport recently announced additions to retail and food outlets both before and after security.
(PHOTO: Jim Watson/Getty Images)
