[author: Rachel Evans, summer associate]

On June 29, 2022, travelers at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport were the first to interact with a new flight information display that uses facial recognition technology “to identify participating travelers and show them the appropriate information.”

How It Works

Customers can opt-in to the experience by either scanning their boarding pass or activating facial recognition at the Parallel Reality kiosk to check in to their flight and receive day-of-travel information at their fingertips—or, more appropriately, at their facial scan.

Once a customer has checked in and approached the flight information board, cameras embedded in the board will match an individual to their picture and engage multi-view pixels to display a unique message only the intended customer can see.

Nearly all travelers can simultaneously look at the display and receive completely different, personalized information relating to their travel plan.

Ranjan Goswami Delta’s Senior Vice President, Customer Experience, applauded the project and remarked “this technology truly must be seen to be believed . . . the . . . experience means customers will no longer have to search for flight and gate information.”

Implications

As fascinating as the “Parallel Reality” experience is, it comes at a time when biometric technologies are being subject to increasing state and federal scrutiny.

In 2020, Delta confirmed it does not “store or save any customer biometric information, [and does not have] plans to do so.” But with many plaintiffs bringing biometric claims irrespective of a company’s data storage policy, businesses implementing such technology should apprise themselves of biometric privacy laws and take necessary precautions to stave off consumer claims.