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In airports it's often difficult to find the
people you're meeting off a plane. My
suggestion is to have one big video wall
where pictures of the 'losers' are
displayed, together with the location of
the digital camera post in the terminal
where they got their photo taken. That
way, much
less bunching and (if the
airport people are sensible), they'll put
the digital camera posts in coffee areas
and the like, encouraging the waiting
'losers' to spend their hard earned cash.
Passenger statistics for New York's major airports (.PDFs)
http://www.laguardi...on/lgacoverfram.HTM About 61,300 people per day for LaGuardia; about 85,600 for JFK [phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Passenger statistics for Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport
http://www.atlanta-...ort_info/gmpage.htm About 226,500 passengers per day [phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Passenger information for Chicago's O'Hare airport
http://www.ohare.co...out/statistics.shtm About 144,100 passengers per day [phoenix, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
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Nice idea, but wouldn't it take a long time to see your personal 'loser' come round? |
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no.. it's a video wall, so it displays say 60 people at a time with their locations. |
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Has the added advantage of acting as an impromptu dating agency. Whilst waiting for your flatmate/parents/soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend to get through customs you can check out the wall to see if anyone takes your fancy. |
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whats up with airport ideas getting all the non-fishes? |
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I expect both parties would end up hanging around the video wall (assuming there's only one)- each knowing the other can be sighted there. |
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How do images get removed once a connection is made? How many camera locations are we talking about? How far across the terminal is my picture broadcast (how many video walls to you anticipate)? |
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[nomadic] - I've no idea, it's nice though
[phoenix] - there's only one wall per terminal (it flashes pictures from other terminals from time to time in case people are really lost), but there are a great many camera posts. The losers hang out by the post, the losee hangs out by the screen until a confirmed sighting, at which point losee goes to camera post, finds loser, and hits 'I've found this loser' small touch screen, and loser's photo comes off foyer display. |
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I can imagine me saying to the person I want to meet "I'll see you by the video wall". If its that big it should be easy enough to find! |
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Very nice idea, [neilp]! Helping less-than-nomadic wanderers find their nomadic wanderers. |
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[dob] there would be a very large notice insisting that people don't meet by the wall. or a moat or something. |
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[neilp] You had my vote until you explained how it worked. |
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sorry [phoenix], could you forget I explained ? goes to prove you can't find all the people all the time. |
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Though I see some holes in this idea, I think it might work well for lost children. Just reverse the process. Have a central camera, and big video screens throughout the airport. When not showing lost children they can display advertising. |
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Need to be slightly careful about transmitting pictures of lost kids [World] due to the (probably very few) people out there who might be looking to abduct them. |
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Don't be silly. There are easier ways to abduct children than to try to convince security guards that it's your child while the kid's yelling "he's not my daddy! I want my daddy!" |
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Don't post them here, [World], obviously. Interesting reversal plan. |
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gotta be careful where you put the cameras, voyeurism, anyone? |
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great idea, unfortunately it is baked. In the Dallas, Tx airport it has T.V.'s throughout the airport for advertisements, etc. Then if someone is looking for someone else or is lost, you can go to almost any counter and put a video/audio announcement on it. They let you put your picture and your voice saying...well, whatever...then they display it all over the network which reaches every t.v. terminal in the whole airport. It took a few minutes to put it together, but then was played until the original person had it cancelled. I watched it happen...was really neat. |
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I give that Dallas TX system about
2 months before it gets zapped for
security problems. What a great
way to communicate to your
terrorism plot mates. |
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I page Mr. Black we do X
I page Ms. Smith we retreat
I page Mr Green we go with plan c
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I love the name of this. Really love
it. But the risks are surprisingly
large. Better to have losers pre
arrange meeting plans to fall back
on. I know, they are losers so the
are not the type to have a
mustering plan. |
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I also think you are more likely to
have this trouble (not meeting up)
with people you would not
recognize: i.e. the Sales Rep from
the other coast. |
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I think it would be safer to have
people who are being met and
have not found their "catcher"
were to declare their lost status
and where they plan to wait. Then
folks who can not find their arriver
can show some ID and say who
they are looking for. In this way if
they are "fishing" for the code
phrase then they better have a
good guess or a good rap,
otherwise, "Mr. Williams here will
take you where we need you to
go..." |
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That's just silly. Terrorists have cell phones like everyone else. Do we really need to kill off any communication system for fear of terror? (parenthetically (and I love saying parenthetically while in parenthesis (and I love pretending I'm actually in the parenthesis ("help me! let me out!"))), the world's current "fear of terror" strikes me as a very sad case of irony) |
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[worldengineer] I very much agree
with you. I'm just saying what i
think the authorities would arrive
at. |
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But to give my point its due: cell
phones and conference call lines
are not secure and answering a
call makes you stand out. On the
otherhand glancing at a screen or
listening to a paging message is
far difficult to detect. Part of this
comes from my casual interest in
steganography. |
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DadManWalking: //cell phones and conference call lines are not secure// |
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Re cell phone I assume you mean radio pick up. But conference call lines? |
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Cell phones are certainly more secure than intercom systems. Hands-free devices are widely available. Besides, are you seriously suggesting that they will remove intercom systems at airports? So if my child gets lost or if they find my wallet I'm just out of luck? |
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i was being sloppy, sorry, I was
assuming you might try a
conference call to make
simultaneous dissemination of
orders possible and that you
would use mobile phones for it.
pay phones being of unknown
security and not necessarily
located for the convenience of the
black hats. I do not know what
conference lines are, really. But if
your plan needed them to be
secure, and I were the boss of the
baddies, I'd have you rethink. |
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the intercoms stay but the Public
Addresses are mediated. It has
been this way for a long time. John
Q public does not get to go pick
up the PA mic and say,"Anyone
finding my fishbones near the BA
ticket desk should return them." |
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It has been a while but, as i recall.
the system you tell some authority
person what is up and they figure
out what to do: radio person x
enter claim in system y, pull you
aside for counseling or
whatever.
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Think about it: given how many
folks are at airports, security
aside, it would be a great noisy
mess to do it with announcements.
Just send them to lost and found.
The default muster point for folks
who did not make one for
themselves. |
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DadManWalking: If there's one thing I know it's conference call security. OK, you're off the hook :) |
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[theircompetitor] I'm not sure what
you mean. But I do like being off
the
hook in both the idomatic way
and the vernacular way. |
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Did I guess correctly that
conference calls of all but the
most exotic variety are not to be
trusted by us aspiring black hats? |
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it's a topic I work on, so I had to ask in case you had something in particular. |
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In general on an operator-less call, if you have an access code -- or sometimes just a phone number, you get on, and at best, there's a small tone -- but if two people joined at the same time, the others may have missed it. |
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Classic comical problem on calls is when people assume someone is off the call(for instance a competitor or a vendor) -- and they start discussing them. |
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And on pretty much all systems you have to assume that the operator may be listening. |
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Of course on our calls all those things are impossible, they're designed to be secure and are often used by customers requiring the extra security (though also by general public). |
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[looks at pictures on "lost people"
wall]
"I can see Deirdre
now Lorraine has gone" |
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"Except for Paul's obstacles, in my way." |
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Gone through the dark crowds, she's had to dash
She's going to do a sh**e, sh**e - don't get in her way! |
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(This smacks of the old Celebrity Shoehorning Game) |
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[singing One Vision by Queen whilst looking at the lost wall] |
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"Look what they've done to Mike Read!" |
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[babyhawk] - D/FW or Love Field? |
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I once was lost but now am found |
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[Canuck]! Nice to see you! |
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Oh, and something about the wall o' pictures. |
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