Civil rights groups demand CBP stops facial recognition expansion at airports

The American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and more than a dozen other civil rights groups have objected to Customs and Border Protection's plan to expand use of facial recognition at border entry and exit points. The Departme...

ACLU sues Homeland Security over airport facial recognition records

There's no question that AI surveillance is on the rise, but there are a lot of questions about just how extensively law enforcement agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), are using it. In an attempt to increase transparency, the A...

Verizon enlists Boingo to help it bring 5G indoors

Sure, real 5G is up to three times faster than LTE, but there are a few caveats. As we discovered in Chicago, 5G doesn't always hold up when you're trying to use it indoors. Even a pane of glass can cause your signal to flicker between 5G and 4G. Ver...

This futuristic airport-escalator can perform your security check as you stand on it

We’ve all gone through that arduous, annoying process of passing through security check at the airport. It’s honestly a race against the clock, and against cluelessness. Do you take your belt off? Shoes? Okay, how do I time it perfectly so my suitcase gets scanned at the same time I get my body-scan done? Is that man trying to pick up my bag? The process, as streamlined as airports have tried to make it, is stressful, and the longer the line, the more the impatience. Charles Bombardier and Ashish Thulkar, however, believe they may have an answer to this problem.

Meet the Aerochk. It’s practically a security-checking kiosk and an escalator rolled into one. Getting yourself checked is simple. The escalator has two conveyor belts on each side. One for your passport, another for your bags. Keep your stuff ready and board the escalator. Your passport and luggage travels alongside you, and right at the end, you (and your stuff) pass through a security-booth that performs a scan on you. Multiple sensors scan your weight, your body, and your face to offset the manual scanning process done by humans. Simultaneously, the passport conveyor does a scan of your passport to match your details with you as a person, while also performing a background check to make sure your document is valid, and that you’re eligible for travel. The luggage conveyor also simultaneously scans your bags for any prohibited items, using a wide variety of sensors and cameras, spanning X-Ray, thermal imaging, spetrometric scanning, and even electronic noses like the Cumulus sensor. All these sensors tag your luggage as well as your passport to you as the individual, streamlining the entire process so that you don’t have to wait in line, moving inch by inch. Just stand on the Aerochk and it guides you through the entire security check procedure without you having to move a muscle. Once you’re out, you’re free to collect your luggage, validated passport, and your flight ticket. Easy peasy!

Designers: Charles Bombardier & Ashish Thulkar (Imaginactive)

The UK is expanding drone no-fly zones around major airports

Just a couple of months after drone sightings grounded flights at one of the UK's busiest travel hubs, the nation is expanding drone no-fly zones around airports. As of Wednesday, the no-fly radius is widening from one kilometer to five kilometers (a...