This Futuristic Machine Could Make Airport Security So Much Better
At airports, it means taking off your shoes and funneling shampoo into tiny bottles. At stadiums, it means letting a stranger with a little stick poke around your belongings and pat you down.
But if Qylur Security gets its way, all of those tedious rituals will be things of the past. And it will be thanks to this bizarre, colorful, honeycomb-like machine.
The key to the Silicon Valley-based security company's business plan is the Qylatron.
It consists of five little pods, nestled around a central sensor that detects conventional weapons (like guns) as well as harder to see threats, like chemical weapons.
The setup is simple: Hold your ticket up to the machine, and it assigns you one of the pods that are built around the sensors. Open the door, put your bag in. Close it. The sides of the pod expand to hold your bag tightly, so it doesn't get jostled. The bag moves down a conveyor belt as it's screened.
On the other side of the Qylatron, use your ticket to unlock the door to your pod. Take your bag and go.
On top of greatly increasing the speed of the security process - Qylur promises a five-fold increase - there's the benefit of being the only person to handle your own things. I tried a walkthrough, and it felt less invasive than the standard airport or stadium process.
If it works, I'd much rather use this system than the conventional TSA operation. I bet most people would feel the same.
Coming To An Airport Near You?
The "entry experience solution" will be on the market starting in early 2014.
The company's plan is to provide the Qylatron to venues free of charge, along with maintenance and necessary updates (a new chemical to detect, for example). In exchange, it gets paid for each person screened, somewhere between $.20 and $1, CEO Dr. Lisa Dolev estimated.
The machine takes up only 450 square feet, and requires significantly less personnel than the standard setup. In an interview, Dolev said stadiums could cut stuff by up to 75%. Airports could drop up to half their security workers.
That's a good sales pitch. And given the public's lack of love for how the TSA runs airport security these days, don't be surprised if you see Qylatrons popping up around the world in the next few years.