Travel: Look Into The Crystal Ball

Over the next several years, amazing technology will revolutionize the way we travel. On The Saturday Early Show, Dana Dickey, senior editor of Conde Nast Traveler magazine, talks about some innovations that are right around the corner, designed to help make travel faster and safer.

And we're not talking 10 or 20 years down the road. In many cases, the technology will be introduced on a wide scale in the next year or two.

• Iris Recognition Technology: Iris recognition is the most accurate of all the biometric technologies. It gets identification done virtually error-free, and does it quickly and in a non-contact fashion.

  Based on pictures, not scans, a camera takes a photograph of the iris (the externally visible colored ring around the pupil of the eye) and digitizes that image. The patterns found there, not unlike snowflakes, are unique to each eye. The system is said to be much more accurate than fingerprints. Even an individual's two eyes are as different from each other as from another person's eyes.

  The unique pattern of the iris is transformed to a very unique personal signature, which is then registered in a data bank. Iris recognition works from 3 inches to nearly a foot away, though 8 to 10 inches is best. Its authentication also works through glasses, contacts, even some sunglasses.

  Lots of well-known airports have deployed or are deploying it to make premises, passengers and property safe. But equally important, iris recognition is making the travel experience more convenient.

  Systems are already at work in the United States in pilot programs at five airports, including Logan in Boston and Reagan National in Washington D.C. There, frequent travelers have enrolled in a program that enables them to use a "fast lane" to escape the sometimes long lines at security.

  Although the technology does not replace security, the identity check and confirmation of a passenger whose background has been vetted does enable airport security personnel to spend their time focused on the smaller "unknowns" as the "knowns" pass through more quickly.

  Iris recognition may also be used at hotels, so regular guests can bypass check-in. In Boston, the Nine Zero Hotel has pioneered the system in its penthouse suite, and at its employee entrance.

• Electronic Passports: The new e-passport will make travel more secure. It will carry information about the traveler, including an electronic image of the face, in a smart/computer chip embedded in the cardboard cover. The smart chip inside also will make it impossible to falsify or tamper with passports, which will improve homeland security.

  Beginning in 2005, as many as 140 countries will join the U.S. in issuing such passports and visas. This will help prevent the use of lost or stolen passports by terrorists, criminals and others who wish to do us harm.

  The downside: Privacy advocates say the new format (developed in response to security concerns after the Sept 11. attacks) will be vulnerable to electronic snooping by anyone (including terrorists) within several feet, a practice called "skimming."

• Electronic Tagging: Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags will enable bags to be tracked and moved with greater precision. Tags are embedded with chips that receive information via radio waves. Flight details (including personal information, origin of the flight and destination) are recorded on the tags.

  As bags move toward the cargo hold, scanners track their precise location in case the flight is delayed or canceled or the passenger doesn't board. Missing luggage can be traced at the touch of a key. The airports in Las Vegas and San Francisco are testing this technology.

  (In Denmark, Legoland already offers RFID bracelets to children to help parents trace them if they get lost. And Disney is considering using this technology.)

• The Future of Mobile Phones: By 2006, passengers may be able to use mobile phones throughout a flight, without interfering with aircraft electronics. The Federal Communications Commission voted on Dec. 15, 2004, to solicit public comment about ending the ban on in-flight use of cellphones. (The agency also approved technology giving airlines what could be a cheaper option to provide Internet connections.)

  However, the disturbance caused to fellow passengers could mean that cell phone use on flights is curtailed. And on overnight flights, pilots might shut down the service when it's dark out.

  By 2007, passengers approaching the airport will be able to receive text messages offering a seat number via their mobile phones. By texting back to accept, they will effectively have checked in. Airlines also will be able to alert passengers if they've gone to the wrong terminal. If stuck in traffic and unable to reach the airport in time, it can automatically book a seat on the next flight.

  In fact, in the next year or so, paper tickets will be completely replaced by e-tickets. And eventually, mobile phones will serve as ticket and boarding passes.

• Noise-Cancellation Technology: Already available in headsets that cost about $300, this technology will be introduced in seat armrests, initially in premium cabins. Put on the headsets, and dramatically reduce aircraft engine noise. Eventually, the same technology may be used to reduce ambient noise throughout the cabin.
• Airbus A380: This will be the world's largest commercial jet. The double-decker plane will carry at least 150 more people than a 747, making it the first super-jumbo. Despite its size, the A380 will generate only half the noise of a Boeing 747 at takeoff, and its seats will be an inch wider in economy.

  The future of the A380 also holds such amenities as private compartments and showers (like first-class rail travel does), in-flight cocktail bars, spiral staircases, atmospheric fountains and high-end duty-free shops. Although no U.S. airline has yet ordered the A380, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways and Korean Air have. The first commercial flights are scheduled for 2006.

• Space Travel: Richard Branson signed a deal worth about $26 million to produce five "spaceliners" for his new company, Virgin Galactic, with the goal of taking people to the final frontier by 2007. Tickets will cost about $200,000. The "spaceliners" will make three-hour flights to the edge of space, giving the five passengers on board about three minutes of weightlessness.

  Flights will take off from the Mojave Desert in California, and passengers will do a week's worth of preflight training. A rival American company, Space Adventures, is offering 45-minute flights for about half the price ($100,000).